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THE ROYAL MARINE 


Fn Tdyl of Warragansett Pier 


BY 


BRANDER MATTHEWS 
AUTHOR OF 


‘THE STORY OF A STORY, AND OTHER STORIES” 
“VIGNETTES OF MANHATTAN” ETO, 


ILLUSTRATED 





NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
1894 


oy 





- 


CONTENTS 


CHAP, PAGE 
I. JUDGE GILLESPIE’S LUNCHEON. . a 


Il LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK’S CRAB- 
BING-PARTY ° . e . ° ° . 30 


III. THE HOP AT THE CASINO Re a ci 


IV. THE MORNING SERVICE AT THE 
CEReEEE OES oe” "+ gs eee ee 


V. MISS MARLENSPUYK’S READING- 
LITE, os Re a eee” Mamie ate eS 3) 


VI. THE CONCERT AT THE CASINO. . 116 


S815 





ILLUSTRATIONS 


“HE HAD A SUDDEN INSPIRATION”. . . . Frontispiece 
“<HOW’S THE WATER THIS MORNING?’”?, Facingp. 6 
«(ST RECKON SO,’ SHE REPLIED” . . . . “ 26 


“WHENEVER ANY OF THE OTHER MEN WENT 


OFF WITH HER FORA WALK” . .. “ 32 
“TITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK”. . . .... “ 44 
Deceerenitc =... a eae 62 
ots! RS SN a 74 


“¢sHE DIDN’T ACCEPT ME—NO,’ HE AN- 


0 EEL SS SRG a a age a 108 





ee Pe 
“nt 





THE ROYAL MARINE; 


AN IDYL OF NARRAGANSETT PIER 


CHAPTER I 


JUDGE GILLESPIE’S LUNCHEON 


Ir was not yet half-past eleven o’clock 
of a bright, warm morning towards the 
end of July when Mr. Joshua Hoff- 
man’s steam-yacht Lhadamanthus an- 
nounced her arrival at Narragansett 
Pier and dropped anchor off the beach. | 
A few minutes later an electric launch 
sped alongside the little float just 
within the breakwater before the Ca- 
sino, and the aged owner of the yacht 
stepped ashore, accompanied by one of 


4 





his guests, a young man of barely thir. 7 
ty. Under the arch of the Casino thes 
old gentleman found a carriage, and af- 
ter making a bargain with the driver, 
he got in. 

“T shall be back about four o’clock,” 
he said to his young friend. 

“You will find me here in good 
time, sir,’ was the reply. Then the 
carriage drove off with the owner of 
the yacht, and the younger man was 
left standing. Before him was the open 
door of the Casino, but a single glance 
told him that the hour had not yet ar- 
rived when the veranda and the terrace 
filled up with guests. 

He turned to the right, and in two 
minutes he found himself tramping 
along a covered plank walk which ran 
in front of the line of low wooden bath- 
ing-houses. Striped awnings protected 
from the glare of the sun the gayly | 





5 





dressed women who sat on the platforms 
which projected from every bathing- 
house. Beyond these platforms there 
were slight white tents, under the shel- 
ter of which little children played in 
the sand and were happy. In front of 
the tents was the broad beach, whereon 
the surf was breaking sturdily. 

A throng of women, young and old, 
with here and there a man, or more of- 
ten a boy, floated leisurely down the 
plank walk, and filled the platforms, 
and spread out over the beach, exchang- 
ing frequent greetings with one another. 
The passenger who had just landed 
from the Lhadamanthus heard cheerful 
young voices on all sides of him asking 
each other, ‘ How’s the water this morn- 
ing?’ “Are you going in?” “Whose 
yacht is that?” with other questions of 
like importance. Although he had not 
yet recognized a single acquaintance in 


6 





the crowd which surged about him, the 
young man did not feel lonely. He 
gazed around placidly, interested by the 
sight and moving forward slowly. 
When he had gone to the end of the 
plank walk and had turned back again, 
two small boys in their bathing-suits, 
just out of the water and dripping wet, 
rushed past him in high glee; and in 
seeking to keep out of their way as they 
turned and twisted at his side, he care- 
lessly trod on the dress of the lady in 
front of him. He heard the skirt rip 
before the weight of his foot checked 
the progress of the owner of the dress. 
“T beg your pardon!” he cried, tak- 
ing off his hat hastily, as he heard her 
say “Oh!” in a tone of annoyance. 
Catching his apology, she turned and 
smiled sweetly, and said: “ It don’t mat- 
ter. It isn’t torn, I reckon.” 
The accent was Southern. So per- 





“6 How’s THE WATER THIS MORNING ?’” 





7 


haps was the face of the speaker. She 
was a girl of scant twenty, a little short, 
and almost plump. She had light brown 
hair which curled easily under a stiff sail- 
or hat. Her eyes were dark gray. She 
wore a white yachting-dress trimmed 
with blue; on the sleeve were the stripes 
and the crowned V.R. of a boatswain in 
the navy of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 

At her right walked a handsome boy 
of six, strikingly like his sister. He, 
too, wore a sailor suit of British manu- 
facture ; his straw hat had a black band, 
whereon was stamped, in gold letters, 
Pb, 9. Victory.” 

As she turned away and passed on 
again, the young man who had trod on 
her gown caught sight of the man who 
was walking with her on the left. 

“Why, that’s little Mat Hitchcock,” 
he said to himself. As he had no great 
liking for Mr. Mather Hitchcock, he 


8 





dismissed the young lady’s companion 
from his mind. 

Leaving the bathing-houses, he went 
down on the beach and strolled along, 
looking for the strange and peculiar cos- 
tumes that were to be seen at Narragan- 
sett Pier, if the comic papers could be 
believed; but in less than ten minutes 
he was forced to the conclusion that the 


humorous artists were not credible, for — 


the bathing-dresses he saw before him 
then were as decorous as he had seen 
at any other American watering-place. 
Wherein Narragansett Pier differed 
from other watering-places was not in 
the costumes of its bathers, but in the 
beauty of its beach, which sloped slowly 
away, and on which the waves rolled in 
and curled over and fell forward with 
most enticing freshness. 

Their appeal was irresistible at last, 
and when the clock of the Casino doubt- 


“ 
Dee os 
* oP 
4% Sue narttigte. 
Cs A 
ee 
“he=* = 


9 





fully chimed forth the hour of noon, 
the young man who had arrived on the 
Rhadamanthus was in the surf. The 
sand was fine and firm, and free from 
stones and shells. The waves fell for- 
ward sharply, and the surf tingled the 
blood of the bathers and refreshed them. 
There was no undertow, and so there 
‘was no need of a life-line; even little 
children splashed about safely in water 
up to their armpits. To rescue any one 
who might stand in sudden need of help, 
there was a row-boat bobbing up and 
down just outside the breakers. Three 
small rafts, anchored one beyond the 
other, afforded resting-places for advent- 
urous swimmers; and the farthest of 
the three was furnished with a spring- 
board for diving. 

The young man who had landed from 
the yacht plunged head foremost into 
the first breaker he met, and then swam 


10 





briskly to the nearest raft. Having 
thus wet and warmed himself, he came 
inshore, that he might have the full 
benefit of the surf. When he touched 
bottom again and stood firm that a 
breaker larger than usual should curve 
over him, he found himself near a little 
group of bathers, and he could not help 
but hear their conversation. Two stal- 
wart young men, one with a white shirt 
having a light-blue C on it, and the 
other in a white shirt having a dark-red 
H on it, were begging a young lady to 
let them tow her out to the nearest raft. 

“But I can’t swim a stroke, and you 
know I mustn’t get my hair wet,” said 
the:girl, “if you want to see me at the 
hop to-night.” 

At the sound of her voice the passen- 
ger from the Lhadamanthus looked 
around, and he identified her at once as 
the young lady whose dress he had trod- 


11 





den upon nearly half an hour earlier. 
Her bathing-costume was of black, and 
her light-brown hair was coiled tightly 
about her shapely head, two or three 
stray locks curling prettily over her fore- 
head. In the full light of the mid-day 
sun there was a glint of gold in some of 
the braids) The water and the wind 
had heightened the fresh color in her 
cheeks. Apparently she had not recog- 
nized him again, and the young man, 
remarking her beauty, hoped that he 
had not torn her gown badly. 

At last she suffered herself to be per- 
suaded, and the two young athletes from 
Columbia College and Harvard stood 
before her side by side, and she rested 
a sunburnt hand lightly on the shoulder 
of each, and then they struck out to- 
gether, swimming high out of the water, 
so as to support her, while little Mat 
Hitchcock went on ahead as a pilot to 


12 





clear the way; and thus she was con- 
voyed safely to her destination, the ca- 
pricious surf sparing her hair. 

The young man watched while the 
girl was towed to the raft and helped 
up to a seat upon it. Then, with a 
half-sigh of regret that he did not 
have the pleasure of her acquaintance, 
he dived again into a big wave, and 
swam out steadily and sturdily beyond 
the life boat and around it and back 
again. ! 

Half an hour later he walked up the 
steps of the Casino, and found himself 
face to face with an old friend. 

“ Miss Marlenspuyk!” he cried. 

“Warren Payn, I declare!” was her 
response. “I am really glad to see 
you. Come and get me a chair, and 
sit down beside me and tell me all you 
know.” 

“Tm afraid that won’t take me long,” 





“LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK”? 


Sr OS da 
es a) 
V<. ¥ 
< 
Ce} 


_—  ™ 


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13 





he answered, as he followed the cheery 
old maid out on the terrace. 

The sight of her wrinkled face, with 
its crown of silver-gray hair and its 
wonderful blue eyes twinkling with 
good-humor, made the young man feel 
at home at once. He got her a com- 
fortable arm-chair, and he put another 
before her to serve as a footstool, and 
then he sat down beside her. 

‘And how are you?” he began. 

“1? she returned, briskly. “I’m 
as well as any old woman of seventy 
has a right to be: ve my hair and my 
teeth and my eyes still, and I can sleep 
nights. What more can I expect? But 
you— you look run down. Are you 
here for the summer?” 

“No,” he responded; “I’m going to 
spend my vacation in the Adirondacks. 
I’m here only for the day—or for part 
of the day really. Mr. Hoffman—” 


14 





“JT thought that was his yacht!” she 
interjected. 

“The Jehadamanthus — yes,” Mr. 
Payn went on. “ Mr. Hoffman — he’s 
one of our vestrymen, you know—he 
met me in the street yesterday morning, 
and he said I looked tired, and that salt 
water was what I needed. So he ecar- 
ried me off. We were at New London 
last night, we are here now, and we go 
over to Newport at four o’clock; and I 
take the night boat back this evening, 
so as to be in time for my choir rehears- 
al to-morrow evening.” 

“You are still organist of St. Mar- 
tha’s?”’ she asked. . 

He nodded. “And our new rector 
is a hard worker. He keeps the church 
open all summer, and he has asked me 
to give special Sunday-night choral ser- — 
vices to attract the floating summer 
population of the city.” 


15 





“Well,” she said, laughing lightly, 
“if you haven’t changed of late, you are 
glad of the hard work.” 

He smiled. “I don’t run away from 
it, I hope,” he admitted. “And [ve 
composed a new Te Deum since you 
were at St. Martha’s last. When you 
get back to town you must let me know 
what morning you can come, and I'll do 
it for you. It has been quite a suc- 
cess. ve published it, and it is being 
done in many of the best churches out 
West.” 

“ Let’s see,” she said, looking at him, 
“how long is it since I had a chat with 
you last?” 

“It’s nearly a year,” he answered. 
“T haven’t seen you since Mr. Hoffman 
gave that reception to the Bishop of 
Tuxedo.” 

“Dear me!” said the old lady, “how 
time flies nowadays! A year, is it? 


16 





Well, well! And you must be twenty- 
seven or twenty-eight now ?” 7 

“Tm just thirty,” he returned. 

“Thirty!” she echoed; “and not 
married yet? Of course not, or I should 
have heard of it. Not engaged either?” 

“Not yet,” he replied, “and Pm in 
no hurry to be married.” 

“Then you had better not stay here 

long,” she retorted; ‘this place is just 
full of pretty girls, and nice girls 
too.” : 
“T saw a pretty girl on the beach,” 
he said; “a charming girl; a South- 
erner, I should think, by her accent. I 
trod on her dress, and she forgave me 
very sweetly. I almost wish I was go- 
ing to stay here long enough to make 
her acquaintance.” 

“ Describe her to me,” Miss Marlen- 
spuyk commanded. 

“Well,” he began, “she was rather 


a 





short, I think, with light-brown hair and 
a good figure—” 

“JT suppose that means she- was 
plump?” the old maid interrupted. 
“You men somehow seem to detest 
slim women.” 

Mr. Payn laughed. “ Yes,” he ad- 
mitted, “I think you might fairly call 
this girl plump. But she was so young 
and fresh and wholesome—oh, I wish I 
could describe her properly! but I can’t.” 
He paused for a second, and suddenly 
his face lighted up. “But I can do 
better than describe her—I can show 
her to you.” 

“Where?” asked the old maid, sharp- 
ly, raising her glasses. 

“There,” the young man answered, 
“in the window on the stairs, looking 
down onus. Don’t you see? Up there 
—with that little Mat Hitchcock by her 
side.” 

2 


18 





Miss Marlenspuyk lifted her eyes lei- 
surely, and caught sight of the young 
lady whose dress Mr. Warren Payn had 
torn that morning. The girl was framed 
in the broad window, on the edge of 
which she was sitting. By her side her 
young brother leaned forward, peering 
down on the crowd below. Just behind 
her stood Mr. Mather Hitchcock. 

“Ts that the girl you mean?’ Miss 
Marlenspuyk asked. ‘The one in the 
white sailor suit ?” | 

“That’s the one,” he responded, ea- 
gerly. “Whoisshe? I know you know 
everybody.” 

“JT know her—and I knew her great- 
grandfather,” the old maid answered, 
lowering her glasses. ‘ She’s the Royal 
Marine.” 

For a moment the young man looked 


at his companion in mute astonish- 


ment. 


19 





“The Royal Marine?” he repeated at 
last. i 

“Yes,” said Miss Marlenspnyk, “ that’s 
what Ieall her. Didn’t you see the V.R. 
and the British crown on her sleeve?” _ 

“JT noticed it,’ Mr. Payn acknowl- 
edged. ‘But I supposed she was wear- 
ing an imported dress, and—” 

“But what business has any Ameri- 
can girl got with Queen Victoria’s mon- 
ogram ?’ asked Miss Marlenspuyk, ener- 
getically. ‘If American girls are going 
to wear british crowns on their arms, 
what was the good of Bunker Hill and 
the Fourth of July and the Surrender 
of Cornwallis.” 

“ Really I don’t know,” said the mu- 
sician, smiling at her intensity. 

“ That’s why I call her the Royal Ma- 
rine,” the old maid declared. ‘‘She’s a 
dear good girl, and I’m very fond of her 
—but she’s a Royal Marine for all that!” 





20 
® 


“And what do you call her little 
brother —for I saw he had ‘H. M.S. 
Victory’ on his hat?” 

“ Disousting, isn’t it?’ Miss Marlen- 
spuyk replied. ‘I suppose I must call 
him Her Majesty’s Midshipmite.” 

“Royal Marine or not,” said the 
young man, looking up at the window, 
“she’s just as pretty as she can be.” . 

“That’s nothing to her credit,” the 
old maid declared. “Tm just as pretty 
as I can be, too—so we all are—but it 
doesn’t do us much good, does it? The 
Royal Marine is pretty because she can’t 
help it; she was born so. So was her 
mother before her—and at the same age 
her grandmother was the best-looking 
of the three. That’s her grandmother 
over there talking to Judge Gillespie,” 
and with a gesture she indicated a hand- 
some old lady, over whose chair an old 
beau was bent in conversation. 





21 





“J know Judge Gillespie, of course,” 
Mr. Payn responded. “He’s one of 
our vestrymen too. But I don’t know 
Grandma—lI don’t even know her name 
—or her granddaughter’s name, for that 
matter.” 

“Wer granddaughter’s name is Carroll 
—Hectorina Carroll,” said Miss Marlen- 
spuyk. 

“ Hectorina?’ Mr. Payn repeated. 

“ Hectorina,” she returned. ‘It isan 
odd name, I admit—Hectorina Carroll. 
She’s no kin to Charles Carroll of Car- 
rollton, but for all that she’s a terrapin 
girl.” 

“ A terrapin girl?’ echoed the young 
man, helplessly. 

‘A Baltimorean, I mean,” she ex- 
plained. ‘I call all these Marylanders 
terrapin girls—and they are a very good- 
looking lot, the terrapin girls here this 
year.” 


22 





“Tf Iam to judge by that specimen,” 
Payn assented, “ ve no doubt you are 
justified.” 

“ Hectorina is one of the prettiest 
of them, of course,” said Miss Marlen- 
spuyk, “but she is one of the nicest of 
them too. Some of them are mere 
fashion plates—‘ Casino costume from 
Worth, hat from Virot’—you know 
what I mean.” 

Payn smiled, and acknowledged that 
he had met that kind of young woman. 

« And some girls intended by nature 
to be pretty,’ Miss Marlenspuyk con- 
tinued, “come out here in the sunlight 
with hand-painted faces that wouldn’t 
deceive a blind man. No doubt these 
are not the nice girls; they are body- 
snatchers, mostly.” 

“What?” cried the young man, again - 
astonished. ‘ Body-snatchers ?” 

“You know what I mean—girls who 


23 





can’t let a man go by without reaching 
out for him. That’s what I call them— 
body-snatchers,” the old maid explained. 

Mr. Warren Payn laughed pleasantly. 
“T must study your private vocabu- 
lary,” he said; “you have a nice de- 
rangement of epitaphs. The ‘ Royal 
Marine’ is a ‘terrapin girl,’ I see, but 
she is not a ‘body-snatcher.’ Tm glad 
of that, I confess.”’ 

While Miss Marlenspuyk and Mr. 
Warren Payn had been discussing the 
different classes of terrapin girls, the 
Royal Marine and Her Majesty’s Mid- 
shipmite and Mr. C. Mather Hitchcock 
had disappeared suddenly. They were 
now seen threading their way through the 
throng of chairs on the veranda, mak- 
ing for the spot where Mrs. Carroll sat 
chatting with Judge Gillespie. | 

As the Royal Marine took a chair by 
the side of her grandmother, while little 


24 





Mat Hitchcock broke into a hasty con- 
versation with Judge Gillespie, Miss 
Marlenspuyk caught sight of them. 

‘“‘T suppose they are getting together 
to go into the dining-room,” she said, 
rising. “Judge Gillespie is giving a 
luncheon to Mrs. Carroll this morning.” 

“JT wish I were going to take in Miss 
Carroll,” the composer declared. 

“Mr. Hitcheock will do that, proba- 
bly; he has been asked, I know,” the 
old maid returned, moving towards the 
veranda. ‘Come, and I will introduce 
you to her.” 

As they drew near to the group Payn 
overheard Hitchcock say, “Vm very 
sorry indeed, but I don’t see what I 
can do.” 

The Judge’s response was inaudible, 
but obviously he was annoyed. He 
bowed to Miss Marlenspuyk as he 
stepped up on the veranda, and he 


25 





stared at her companion, and then sud- 
denly recognizing him, shook him heart- 
ily by the hand. 

“Mr. Warren Payn it is, isn’t it?’ he 
cried. ‘I’m very glad to see you, very 
glad indeed.” Then he turned to Hitch- 
cock again, and said, “ Well, if you must 
go, of course there’s no help for it.” 

Miss Marlenspuyk presented Mr. War- 
ren Payn to Mrs. Carroll and to Miss 
Carroll. The girl had risen to give Miss 
Marlenspuyk her chair. The old maid 
took it, leaving the two young people 
standing side by side on the edge of the 
veranda. 

“JT hope I did not tear your dress 
very badly, Miss Carroll,” said the young 
man. 

“Oh dear no,” she answered, smiling. 
“T can fix it in ten minutes.” 

He noticed that her accent was Bal- 
timorean, but her voice was not s0 


26 





shrill as that of the average Maryland 
girl. 

‘Are you here for the whole sea- 
son ?” he asked, after a pause. 

“T reckon so,” she replied. ‘“ Grand- 
ma likes it here.” 

“T don’t wonder,” he responded. 
“This is my first visit to Narragansett 
Pier, and it strikes me as a very pleas- 
ant place. The bathing is delight- 
fai: 

“T saw you swimming round the 
boat,” she said. “I wish I could swim; 
but I don’t like to get my hair wet.” 

“You don’t need to swim,” he re- 
turned, “if you are always as well cared 
for as this morning.” 

“Did you see me towed out?’ she 
laughed. “It was very good of them, 
wasn't it? I did so want to see how 
the beach looked from the raft. Mr. 
Hitchcock suggested it.” 


27 





Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Payn there- 
upon exchanged perfunctory nods. 

Warren Payn had known little Mat — 
Hitcheock for years, and had never been 
able to discover why he detested the 
fellow; he began now to have a reason. 

There was an interval of silence, 
and then Miss Carroll turned to Payn 
again. 

“Have you come , for the season, Mr. 
Payn ?”’ she asked. 

“Only for the afternoon, I’m sorry 
to say,” he answered. “I’m here on 
Mr. Hoffman’s yacht. My real vacation 
doesn’t begin till next month.” 

“Tm so sorry,” she said, simply. “Id 
hoped you were going to stay. You see, 
there are so few men at the Pier yet.” 

After a second’s hesitation the young 
man answered: ‘‘ My plans are all un- 
settled now. I was going to the Adi- 
rondacks, but I really don’t know what 


28 





I shall do. Perhaps I may be able to 
come here, after all.” 

“Mr. Payn,” called the Judge, “can 
I have a moment with you?’ 

He led the young man aside, and 
said: “JI want you to do me a favor— 
if you will? Mrs. Carroll has kindly 
consented to honor me with her com- 
pany at luncheon to-day, and so has 
Miss Marlenspuyk, and also Miss Car- 
roll. I’m expecting Dr. Pennington, of 
St. Boniface’s—Philadelphia, you know; 
he will be here in a moment; and now 
Mr. Hitchcock, who was to have taken 
the sixth place, is suddenly summoned 
to see Mr. Hoffman on business. I 
know I have no right to ask you now, 
but you will put me under an obligation 
if you will join us.” 

The young man smiled, and respond- 
ed, “If I can be of any service to you, 
Judge, you may command me.” 


29 





“Thank you,” said Judge Gillespie. 
“T am delighted that you can make one 
of us.” 

And so it was that, after all, Mr. War- 
ren Payn, and not Mr. Mather Hitch- 
cock, took the Royal Marine in to lunch- 
eon that day. 


CHAPTER II 


LITTLE MAT HITCHCOCK’S CRABBING - PARTY 


Wuen Mr. Warren Payn gave up his 
trip to the Adirondacks and went to Nar- 
ragansett Pier to spend the month of his 
vacation he was quite honest with him- 
self; he confessed frankly that it was 
the Royal Marine that attracted him. 
He suspected that he loved her. More 
than once before, in other summers, had 
he thought that he was in love with 
some other pretty girl, and always be- 
fore the end of the summer he had dis- 
covered that though he might like the 
young lady very well indeed, he did not 
really love her. This time the symptoms 
were different, and they seemed to indi- 
cate that the heart was actually affected 


31 





at last. For one thing, he developed an 
acute jealousy whenever any of the other 
young men who were summering at 
Narragansett Pier came near Miss Hec- 
torina Carroll, going off with her for a 
walk to the Rocks, or taking her for a 
drive to Point Judith, or making up a 
party for a sail across the bay. He de- 
voted himself to her absolutely, and so 
far as possible he prevented the approach 
of Mr. Mather Hitchcock, for example, 
or any other of the sparse male popula- 
tion of the Pier. 

It was only when they were all in 
bathing together that Mr. Hill-Bunker, 
the young man with the crimson H on 
his bathing-shirt, or Mr. Beeckman 
Bleecker, the young man with the light 
blue C, was able to get within arm’s- 
length of the young lady from Balti- 
more, and even then Mr. Warren Payn 
was within arm’s-length also. If two 


32 





pairs of mixed doubles were arranged at 
tennis, he manceuvred openly to be her 
partner, and if he was forced to play 
against her, his side was certain not to 
win a set, no matter how skilful or how 
determined his fair ally might be. On 
the rainy days he would lure her over to 
the bowling-alley, choosing her balls for 
her and advising her on every doubtful 
roll. On the two nights a week when 
there were hops at the Casino he came 
with her, carrying Grandma’s cloak ; and 
he managed generally to get the first 
dance and the last, and more than his 
share of those intervening. 

They danced together very well. She 
was short, and he was not tall. Perhaps 
it should have been recorded earlier that 
he had dark eyes and dark hair, and that 
he wore a full dark mustache. He was 
not a handsome man exactly, but he was 
not ill-looking, and he carried himself 


33 





well. As it happened, he danced very 
well, and the Royal Marine was very 
fond of dancing, and this it was which 
gave him his first advantage with her, 
and led them to an earlier intimacy than 
would have been brought about other- 
wise. 

But although she was always willing 
to dance with him, she treated him very 
much as she treated all the other young 
men. She did not encourage him at all; 
she did not seem even to be conscious of 
his attentions. She was glad to see him 
when he joined her on the veranda of 
the Casino in the evening to listen to the 
music, or on the lawn of the little church 
after service on Sunday; she greeted 
him cordially always; but then her man- 
ner was just as frank and just as hearty 
towards Judge Gillespie, towards little 
Mat Hitcheock, towards Mr. Hill-Bunk- 


er, and towards Mr. Beeckman Bleecker. 
3 


34 





Whenever he was foiled in his effort to 
monopolize the Royal Marine’s society, 
he failed to enjoy even the full share of 
it which fell to him when she had two 
or three other young men dancing at- 
tendance on her. Unless he had her all 
to himself he was not happy. He was 
not disagreeable under these circum- 
stances ; he was not sulky; but he talked 
little, and took only the slightest part in 
the dialogue. It seemed as though it 
was only in a duet that his vocal or- 
gans could be heard to advantage, their 
strains being too delicate and evasive to 
hold their own in the concerted pieces 
of general conversation. 

Whenever he was wholly deprived of 
the privilege of her company—that is to 
say, whenever she was invited to a little 
dinner at the Casino and he was not; 
whenever she went off for a day’s sail in 
a yacht belonging to a man he did not 


~ 


_. 
\ ns 


35 





know; whenever she accepted one or an- 
other of the invitations that came to her - 
now and again to go over to Newport toa 
luncheon or a dance—whenever anything 
of this kind bore her temporarily be- 
yond his reach, he was disconsolate. He 
wandered melancholy along the Rocks, 
or he sat solitary on a chair on the ve- 
randa of the Casino, sunk in moody 
meditation. 

Of course the Royal Marine herself 
did not know the state to which he was 
reduced by her absence, but now and 
then one of the other girls would notice. 
Sometimes they would tease him about 
it unobtrusively. Once one of them 
was kind-hearted enough to tell ’Rina 
when she came back from Newport how 
much Mr. Payn had evidently missed 
her. That evening at the hop she re- 
ceived him more coldly than ever be- 
fore; it was indeed the very first time 


36 





that she had made any distinction of any 
kind between him and her other admir- 
ers. Perhaps if he had been an observer 
only, and not a lover wholly, he might 
have interpreted aright this sudden chill- 
ing of her manner, and he might have 
been elated rather than cast down that 
she allowed little Mat Hitchcock to 
carry Grandma’s shawl that evening, 
and to eseort them back to the hotel 
when at last the music ceased and the 
lights in the ball-room were lowered. 
For a dozen or more years Mr. Math- 
er Hitchcock had made it a point to be 
very attentive to the two or three pret- 
tiest girls at the Pier. It was surmised 
that every year he had proposed to two 
of them at least, and that if he was still 
a bachelor it was not his fault, but the 
fault of the score or more of lovely spin- 
sters who had refused to marry him. To 
none of the young ladies to whom he 





37 





had been devoted had he ever been 
more devoted than to the Royal Marine. 
To none of their other admirers had he 
ever felt as he felt towards Mr. Warren 
Payn. For one thing, he had never for- 
given the new-comer for having arrived 
just in time to take his place at Judge 
Gillespie’s little luncheon. More than 
once was Mr. Hitchcock annoyed to see 
Mr. Payn sitting next to Miss Carroll 
at some impromptu dinner or supper to 
whieh he (little Mat) was not invited. 
More often still—for he was known to 
all the cottagers and to all the regular 
visitors to the Pier—he had himself the 
satisfaction of sitting opposite to Miss 
Carroll at some such feast, while the 
new-comer, not so well known, was left 
out of the list of guests. Once when, 
as it chanced, they were neither of them 
asked on a certain yachting trip which 
was to take all day, little Mat saw how 


38 





desolate the organist looked, how for- 
lorn, how deserted, and in the contem- 
plation of his rival’s misery he forgot 
his own disappointment. Towards the 
end of August, Hitchcock was even 
moved to get up a crabbing expedition, 
carefully arranging that Payn should 
not be included ; and as the merry party 
drove past in two elongated buckboards, 
he had the malign pleasure of seeing the 
composer smoking a solitary cigar on the 
terrace of the Casino. 

That solitary cigar lasted Warren 
Payn nearly two hours. Often as he 
relighted it his thoughts wandered five 
minutes later, and the neglected cigar 
revenged itself by going out. The 
musician had always been given to day- 
dreaming. Perhaps a certain introspec- 
tive absent- mindedness is one mani- 
festation of the artistic temperament. 
Perhaps no man is really an artist— 


39 





painter or composer or what not—who 
has not the power of isolating himself 
and of becoming wholly oblivious of 
his surroundings, of being swept along, 
as it were, on the current of his own 
thoughts. These periods of mental hiber- 
nation, so to speak, the young musician 
had found to be the necessary concomi- 
tants of his periods of artistic productive- 
ness. During these hours of apparent 
sloth his mind was often most active. 
On the day of little Mat Hitchcock’s — 
crabbing party, for example, he sat on 
the terrace of the Casino for three hours, 
speaking to no one, lighting his cigar 
every quarter of an hour, and looking 
steadily out to sea. His body was still, 
but his mind was active. Though his 
feet did not move, his thoughts had put 
“on seven-league boots and were striding 
across the world. When he was tired 
of thinking of her he thought of him- 


40 § 





self, and he wished he were a Prince 
Charming, young and beautiful and 
mighty, that he could come before her 
as a conqueror and lay himself at her 
feet. He built many an Aladdin’s pal- 
ace that he might beseech her to share 
it with him, planning it in accordance 
with what he knew of her tastes in 
house-keeping. Possibly Alnaschar was 
also a composer of music—one does not 
know, although one does know that he 
was never able to produce his greatest 
composition. 

When Warren Payn had made an 
end of his day-dreams at last, and had 
thrown away his cigar, not yet half 
smoked, he got up from the chair and 
started to return to his hotel. As he 
passed the door of the ladies’ room of 
the Casino he found himself walking by 
the side of Miss Marlenspuyk. 

“Well,” she said, smiling, “do you 





41 





think that I look like Ariadne, that you 
have deserted me so long ?” 

For a moment he stood stock - still, 
not yet awake to the world about him; 
then he recovered himself and knew 
where he was. 

“Do I look like Bacchus?” he re- 
turned. “If I look as I feel, I must 
look even soberer than usual.” 

“ Oh, I don’t object to sobriety,” she 
responded, as they passed down under 
the broad bridge into the road, and 
turned towards the long line of ho- 
tels. “I shouldn’t like the Pier if it 
were a brandy-and-watering place, as 
Saratoga is. But perhaps you are car- 
rying austerity to the very verge of 
boastfulness. Does the Royal Marine 
like you to be as serious as you are 

~ now?” 

“I wish I could be sure that the Royal 
Marine liked me even a little,’ he an- 


- 


42 





swered, “and I’d be as serious as she 
chose.” 

““T don’t know whether she likes you 
or not, and of course I shouldn’t tell 
you if I did,” the old maid replied. 
“But I do know that she is not a girl 
to take gray views of life. At her age 
and with her looks she has no use for 
sad-colored garments. Mr. Hitchcock 
said yesterday that her smile was like 
the Moonlight Concerto, and her laugh 
was like a wedding-march.” 

“Oh, he said that, did he?” the com- 
poser inquired. ‘ What does he know 
about concertos, I should like to know 2” 

“T don’t like Mr. Hitchcock any 
better than you do,” said Miss Marlen- 
spuyk, “and yet I don’t know why. 
Perhaps because I am not one of the 
girls he has asked to marry him; so I 
feel assured of his bad taste. And of 
his ignorance of music, and of most 


# 


43 





other things, [ have nodoubt. Indeed, 
if ignorance is bliss, I don’t know any 
one who has better right to be happy 
than Mr. Mather Hitchcock.” 

“Yes,” the composer returned, with 
a little laugh, partly at her joke and 
partly at his own; “a fellow has no 
right to be as ignorant of anything as 
that little Mat Hitchcock is of every- 
thing. He must have spent four years 
at some college conscientiously acquir- 
ing ignorance —for no man was ever 
born knowing so little as he does.” 
' “What has he been doing to you to- 
day ?’ asked the old maid, her wonder- 
ful eyes twinkling humorously as she 
looked the composer in the face. 

“What has he been doing to me?” 
repeated the young man. “ He has been 
getting up a crabbing- party for Miss 
Carroll, and he didn’t let me in.” 
“Dutch treat, I suppose?” she in- 


44 





quired, Mat Hitchcock’s frugality being 
familiar to all his friends. 

“¢ Oh, of course,” he answered ; “ little 
Mat isn’t giving parties at his own ex- 
pense. He doesn’t care for a dollar any 
more than he does for his life.” 

Miss Marlenspuyk laughed. “I’ve 
known him generous enough to give 
himself away,” she said. “And ’m 
afraid you are giving yourself away now 
by your warmth. It’s none of my busi- 
ness, of course, but I’m old enough to 
be your grandmother, and you can con- 
fide in me if you think it would relieve 
your feelings. Are you really in love 
with my young friend, the Royal Ma- 
rine ?”’ 

When Miss Marlenspuyk made this 
kindly suggestion she did not know 
what it was she had exposed herself to, 
for the young lover saw his opportunity 
to talk of the woman he loved and of 


45 





himself and of his hopes and fears and 
his doubts and his despairs. She lis- 
tened in sympathetic silence while he 
poured out his feelings. 

When at last he paused, ashamed that 
he had talked so freely, and yet relievéd 
that he had found some one to whom he 
could express himself without reserve, 
Miss Marlenspuyk said: “ Well, you are 
in love. There’s no doubt of that, is 
there ?”’ 

“Sure,” he answered. ‘ There’s no 
doubt at all.” 

“Do you want to marry her?’ asked 
the old maid. 

“Don’t I, just?” returned the young 
man. “ Why, I’m dying to—” 

“Well,” interrupted Miss Marlen- 
spuyk, “if you want her to marry you, 
why don’t you ask her? You have 
known her nearly a month, and the 
days at the sea-side in summer are twice 


46 





as long as they are in town in winter, 
and so we get to know people twice 
as fast. Besides, this is the last week 
of August, and to-night is the last hop 
of the season, and next week everybody 
will be packing up.” 

“T know,” he returned, sadly. “ My 
own vacation will be up next week.” 

“ And I heard Mrs. Carroll say to- 
day they were soon going to the White 
Mountains for a fortnight,” the old lady 
continued. 

“She isn’t going to take her grand- 
daughter with her, is she ?” asked Payn, 
hurriedly. 

“ She isn’t going to leave her behind,” | 
Miss Marlenspuyk replied. ‘“ You may 
be sure of that. No, there is no use 
waiting, it seems to me. Now is your 
time. You are going to play your Te 
Deum to-morrow, I hear—though you 
didn’t tell me—” 





47 





“ Oh, Miss Marlenspnyk, forgive me,” 
he cried, piteously. ‘I meant to let you 
know in time—indeed I did.” 

“Well, I do know in time,” she re- 
sponded, smiling gently, “and I shall be 
there to hear it. And so will the Royal 
Marine. Why not walk home with 
her ?—I will take charge of Mrs. Car- 
roll—and you can ask her to be your 
wife half a dozen times between the 
church and the hotel.” 

“Once will be enough, I’m afraid,” he 
answered. “I know I’m so unworthy 
of her, and—and, oh, I don’t believe she 
cares for me at all!” 

“Tf that’s your state of mind,” the 
old maid declared, “I wouldn’t put it 
off till to-morrow. [dask her to-night 
at the hop. Take her out on the end 
of the bridge just before the last dance. 
Then you can know your fate before 
you sleep again.” 


48 





“Tf she were to accept me,” he said, 
“JT should be too happy to sleep for a 
week. But she won’t accept me; I 
know she won’t—she doesn’t care for 
me at all, does she 2?’ 

“ How should I know?” asked Miss 
Marlenspuyk. “If you want an an- 
swer to that question, you had best 
put it to the one person who really 
knows.” 

“TJ will!” the young man declared, for- 
cibly. ‘I will! Pll take your advice, 
and I’m ever so much obliged to you 
for making me see what’s best for me 
to do. You are a true friend, Miss 
Marlenspuyk. Tl] ask her to-night at 
the hop—or else to-morrow after 
church.” 

At this last evidence of his irreso- 
lution Miss Marlenspuyk smiled again. 
They had now come to her hotel, and 
she held out her hand. 


49 





‘Thank you for seeing an old woman 
safely home,” she said. 

He grasped her hand and cried, “ Oh, 
you don’t know how much I love her!” 

“ Don’t tell methat,”’ shesaid. ‘I?m 
a woman myself, and I don’t like to 
hear any other woman so belauded. 
Tell that to her. Tell that to the Royal 
Marine !” 

With another smile of encourage- 
ment she left him and went up the 
short asphalt walk to her hotel. 

4 


CHAPTER III 


THE HOP AT THE CASINO 


Tue architects of the Casino at Nar- 
ragansett Pier fully understood the 
great principle that when a ball-room is 
built for use In summer it is not the 
ball-room itself which is important, but 
the covered promenades connected with 
it, since dancing in July and August 
is scarcely more than an excuse for a 
walk in the moonlight and the open air 
immediately before and after every 
waltz. The ball-room of the Narragan- 
sett Casino is not strikingly beautiful, 
it is not well ventilated, and its entrance 
is poor and stunted, but in its series of 
galleries and verandas it is unsurpass- 
able. A broad covered gallery, a sort 





51 





of second-story veranda, too long and 
too imposing to be called a loggia, 
stretches from the door of the ball-room 
along the full length of the building, 
and communicates with the unrivalled 
promenade afforded by the top of the 
arch across the road—a promenade 
which extends out even a little beyond 
the tower that rises almost from the 
edge of the water. This spacious prom- 
enade over the bridge and beyond, open 
to every breeze, and illuminated only 
by an occasional red-bulb electric light, 
has seats here and there along its sides 
and in its many odd corners. 

When Mr. Warren Payn came ont on 
the bridge promenade before the hop 
began on this last Saturday in August, 
and saw the broad face of the moon ris- 
ing red from the waters of the bay be- 
fore him, he felt the charm of the place ; 
and as he listened to the silvery plash 


52 





of the waves in the little cove below; 
he had to confess to himself that no bet- 
ter spot for a proposal could be found 
anywhere. It was a warm night, and 
the breeze which swept languidly across 
the bay was mild and balmy, but at the 
thought of the question he had deter- 
mined to put to Miss Hectorina Carroll 
that evening the young man shivered. : 

He looked at his watch. It was not 
yet half-past eight, and the music would 
not begin till nine. As the Pier was 
overcrowded that week, those who want- 
ed the best seats in the ball-room had 
already begun to arrive. He could see 
them passing along the upper gallery ~ 
in groups of three and four. He knew 
that Mrs. Carroll liked a special corner 
out of the draught, and he guessed that 
the Royal Marine would therefore be 
among the first to arrive. He threw his 
cigar far out on the rocks below him, 





53 





and walked back across the bridge. 
Once inside the building he took his 
position at the head of the stairs, that 
he might catch sight of her as soon as 
she should appear. He stood near the 
window in which he had seen her framed 
the first day they met, now more than 
a month ago. Only a month had he 
been at the Pier, and it had gone very 
swiftly, and yet he felt as if he had 
known her for years—indeed, as if he 
had always known her. He remem- 
bered his astonishment that first day 
when Miss Marlenspuyk had told him 
that the girl whose dress he had trod- 
den upon. was the Royal Marine, and 
he recalled Judge Gillespie’s delightful 
luncheon that afternoon when he sat 
beside her for two hours, and he smiled 
when he recollected the alacrity with 
which he had given up his camping-out 
in the Adirondacks to spend his vacation 


54 





cooped up in a single absurd little room 
just under the roof of a hotel at the Pier. 

Mrs. Carroll and ’Rina were at one 
of the smaller and older hotels, where 
the wretched rooms were reserved for 
the same people year after year; and so 
the composer had found it impossible to 
get in at that house. For the first fort- 
night after his arrival he went to her 
hotel every day, and often twice a day ; 
but when he saw that the other young 
ladies from Baltimore—and the house 
was filled with “terrapin girls,” as Miss 
Marlenspuyk had called them—when he 
saw that others noticed the frequency 
of his calls, a sense of delicacy kept 
him away. He met her quite as often, 
perhaps, on the beach and at the Casino; 
but he came to the house more rarely, 
for it seemed to him almost vulgar to 
parade his love before the groups of gos- 
sipers—old maids and wives and widows 





55 





—who rocked all day on the verandas 
of the hotel. 

He chanced to know that Judge Gil- 
lespie was to escort the Royal Marine 
and her grandmother to the Casino that 
evening, and so he had kept away. He 
had sent her a simple little bunch of 
sweet-pea blossoms, of the pale and gen- 
tle hues which she liked, and which har- 
monized most becomingly with her fresh 
complexion. After his modest nosegay 
had been delivered he had happened to 
see little Mat Hitchcock buying a large 
bouquet of roses. As he stood there at 
the head of the Casino stairs waiting 
for her to come he wondered whether 
she would wear his flowers or Hitch- 
cock’s. He wondered also how it was 
that so nice a girl could tolerate a fel- 
low like Hitchcock. 

When at last he caught sight of her 
his heart sank, for he saw that she was 


56 





carrying the roses in her hand. But 
when she and her grandmother came to- 
the top of the stairs and she greeted him 
with her sweetest smile, and thanked 
him for the lovely flowers he had sent 
her, and showed them to him pinned to 
her dress in a fragrant bunch, then his 
spirits rose again, and little Mat Hitch- 
cock’s big bouquet ceased to have any 
significance for him, even though she 
should carry it in her hand all the even- 
ing. 

They were in time to secure Mrs. 
Carroll the seat she preferred, and to 
see the dancers arrive and fill up the 
three rows of chairs, while the shallow 
balconies above were crowded with mere 
spectators. Narragansett Pier is like 
many another watering-place in that it 
is passing through a period of change. 
Once upon a time it was rather free 
and easy in its ways; and its gayety was 





57 





perhaps even a little noisy, though harm- 
less enough. Now it has become staider 
and more dignified, and yet a memory 
lingers of the former freedom. Time 
was, for example, when a dress-coat was 
unknown at the Pier, and when a man 
who might dare to don such a garment 
would have been made to feel that he 
was unsuitably attired. Even now there 
were a few men in sacks and cut-aways 5 
but the most of them had dressed for 
the occasion, some with the white tie 
and the clawhammer, and some with 
the black cravat and the hybrid jacket 
which is known as a “ Tuxedo coat.” 
This was the garment Mr. Warren Payn 
wore. 

Among the girls there was a like di- 
versity of costume. Two or three ma- 
ture dames wore the full evening dress 
of modern society ; ten or a dozen girls 
came in their hats; the most of the 


58 





young ladies were clad in the simple 
light dresses in which the American 
woman looks most charming. Among 
these was the Royal Marine, who wore 
a white muslin gown, with broad blue 
ribbons floating out behind as she walked 
briskly into the ball-room. The dress 
was neat and becoming. The young 
man who loved her thought that he had 
never seen her look more beautiful. It 
even seemed to him that he detected an 
unusual animation about her. Perhaps, 
however, this was nothing more than the 
high spirits proper to a popular young 
woman at the last hop of the season, 
when she knew she looked at her best, 
and when she was certain of a good 
time. 

After the seats were all taken, and 
after the cloud of young men gathered 
about the door began to thicken, one by 
one the musicians appeared upon the 





59 





stage, the scenery on which was supposed 
to represent a garden in some: hitherto 
undiscovered country ; leisurely they ar- 
ranged the stands for their music, re- 
gardless of the impatience of the expect- 
ant young ladies. Finally, as the clock 
of the Casino struck nine in irregular 
cadence, the leader waved his bow and 
began the first waltz of the last hop of 
the season. 

Mr. Warren Payn and Miss Hectorina 
Carroll were almost the earliest couple 
on the floor, and they would have danced 
through the whole waltz if the Royal 
Marine had not remembered that she 
had promised a turn to Judge Gillespie. 
For the next dance little Mat Hitchcock 
claimed her. 

“As soon as I saw those flowers I 
knew Mr. Hitchcock would come early 
to be thanked,” said Miss Marlenspuyk, 
who had arrived a little late, and who 


—.- 


60 





now occupied a chair Mrs. Carroll had 
reserved for her. “I suppose you gave 
her the sweet-peas ?” 

The musician admitted it. 

“Are you going to speak to her to- 
night ?’ she asked, lowering her voice. 

“If I get a chance I will,” he an- 
swered. , 

“Tf you don’t get a chance to-night,” 
she returned, “you had better make 
one to-morrow. I sha’n’t forget my 
promise to carry off Grandma. But I 
suppose you could play your Te Deum 
with much more fervor to-morrow if 
to-night the Royal Marine promises to 
marry you.” 

He was about to reply when he saw 
little Mat Hitchcock and Miss Carroll 
drop out of the dance. “ Excuse me,” 


he cried hurriedly to Miss Marlenspuyk, 


as he sprang forward and asked her for 
a turn. Then he whirled her to the 


61 





other end of the ball-room almost be- 
fore little Mat could drop into the seat 
beside Mrs. Carroll, to receive that 
lady’s compliments on the taste with 
which he had chosen ’Rina’s bouquet. 

The next dance the Royal Marine 
divided between Mr. Hill-Bunker and 
Mr. Beeckman Bleecker; and the com- 
poser did not get his share. He sat 
through the waltz by the side of Miss 
Marlenspuyk. 

“Are you invited to the supper to- 
night ?” she asked. 

“No,” he answered. ‘Is Miss Car- 
roll going ?” 

“JT believe she is. It has been got 
up inahurry. Mr. Dexter—that Chi- 
cago widower, you know— he is giving 
it to La Marguerite.” 

“Now who is La Marguerite?” he 
laughingly inquired. 

“Don’t you know Virgie Chubb ?” 


62 





was Miss Marlenspuyk’s question in re- 
sponse. ‘“ She’s dancing now witlr Mr. 
Hitcheock.”’ | 

Payn looked across the floor and saw 
that little Mat’s partner was a tall, thin 
girl, blue-eyed and red-haired, with a 
large mouth and a long upper lip. 

“Pve met her,” he acknowledged. 

“Well, I heard one of you young men 
say she was ‘a daisy,’ and so, of course, 
I called her La Marguerite.” 

The musician smiled, and asked, “I 
wonder what nickname you will have 
for me next ?” 

“When I find one that fits you as 
well as La Marguerite fits Virgie Chubb 
I will cap you with it,’ Miss Marlen- 
spuyk responded. ‘I confess I do not 
understand her success this year here, 
for she is nobody in particular, and she 
is inclined to be rather rapid. Now, 
generally, at Narragansett a girl has to 





“LA MARGUERITE ” 





nee 


Bs 


| 
a 
.: 





63 





have a very good social standing before 
she can afford to be at all fast.” 
“T saw her out with a pair-of ponies 


and a buckboard this afternoon,” said 


Payn, “and if that is her ordinary gait 
she is very rapid indeed. I thought 


is the heavy man with her would be thrown 





out as they turned the corner of the Ca- 

sino.” | 

_) “Yes, she drives well,” admitted the 

old maid. “So did her father, if what 

Tam told is true.” 

“Did he drive a T-cart too?’ Payn 
asked. 

_ “No,” Miss Marlinspuyk gravely re- 
plied ; “he used to drive a milk-cart.” 
The musician laughed, and then the 

old maid laughed with him. 

“I suppose,” said the young man, 
“that the father’s former calling is the 
reason the daughter is now trying to 
get into the créme de la créme of society.” 


64 





Just then the music ceased, and Payn 
saw Beeckman Bleecker returning the 
Royal Marine to Grandma.  Hastily 
begging Miss Marlenspuyk to excuse 
him again, the musician sprang up and 
asked Miss Hectorina if she would like 
to take a little walk out on the bridge 
to see the moonlight on the bay. Mrs. 
Carroll threw a shawl over her grand- 
daughter’s shoulders as the girl took the 
arm of the man who was desperately in 
love with her. 

“?Rina,’ said Grandma, “don’t sit 
down, for it is damp out there; and 
don’t be long, or I shall have to send 
some one after you; {’m so nervous 
about your having rheumatism, like 
your poor father had.” 

““T won’t be jong; Grandma,” the girl 
promised. 

As the young couple went up the 
steps at the entrance and out on the up- 





65 





per veranda, Payn asked her if she was 
going to the supper after the hop. 

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m going, 
even if it is given to Virgie Chubb. 
But I don’t like her—that is, I don’t 
like her right much. She used to go to 
school with me in Baltimaw’, and she 
said my nose was like eternity —it had 
no end.” | 

Payn resented this assertion indig- 
nantly. 

“Oh, I didn’t mind,” the Royal Ma- 
rine interrupted. “ Virgie Chubb would 
say anything if she thought it was clev- 
er. She’s very clever, if she is o’nery. 
Miss Ma’lensptiyk says that the Chubbs 
were poor white trash.” 

Her little Southern accent filled him 
with delight, and her local locutions fell 
on his ears as though they were the 
words of a charm. 

“She isn’t any older than I am,” Miss 

Bae! 


66 





Hectorina continued, “and they say she’s 
going to marry that Mr. Dexter, who is 
a widower with six children. Now I 
couldn’t do that—could you? Id feel 
like I was marrying an orphan asylum.” 

It seemed to Warren Payn as if the 
occasion he was seeking was perhaps 
within his grasp. 

“Of course I shouldn’t want you to 
marry a widower, either with six chil- 
dren or without any,” he began. “I 
think a widower should always marry a 
widow; don’t you?” 

“‘T suppose that would be fairer,” she 
responded. ; 

“ What kind of a man do you expect 
your husband to be?” he asked, trying 
to lead up somehow to the avowal he 
wished to make. 

‘Oh—I don’t know, really,” she re- 
turned. “I’m afraid I should be very 
exacting.” 


67 





“ Well—” he began again, seeing his 
opportunity at last. 

But just at that moment the Royal 
Marine was hailed by another young 
woman promenading on the arm of an- 
other young man. 

“Oh, ’Rina!” cried the other young 
woman, whom a dim electric light en- 
abled Payn to identify vaguely as La 
Marguerite —“’ Rina, you are coming 
to my supper after the ball, ain’t you?” 

“Yes, indeed,” answered Miss Hecto- 
rina, heartily. 

“Tm so glad,” continued Miss Virgie 
Chubb, “because Mr. Dexter was so anx- 
ious to have you come. He declared 
that everybody said you and I were the 
belles of the Pier this season !” 

And with that Miss Virgie left them. 

“The spiteful thing!” said Miss Hec- 
torina. 

And the young man who was seeking 


68 





a chance to tell her he loved her and to 
ask her to be his wife recognized at once 
that the propitious moment had passed. 

They crossed the bridge, and stood 
out on the balcony which projects over 
the rocks. A moonglade silvered the 
broad waters of the bay. Between Nar- 
ragansett and Newport could be seen 
the knotted string of faint electric lights 
which revealed the passing of the night 
boat on its voyage from Providence to 
New York. Just as the young people 
stepped out on the balcony the red-fire 
was ignited on the rocks before them, 
and then the distant steamboat blew her 
whistle three times in strident acknowl- 
edgment of the salute. 

‘“‘TIsn’t it like a splendid scene at the 
theatre?” said the Royal Marine at last. 
“Tt is too romantic to be real !” 

“It is somewhat theatrical, I admit,” _ 
responded the composer. “But this 





69 





baleony would be a little too lofty for 
Romeo to climb, even if he had love’s 
light wings.” 

“T don’t like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ do 
you ?” she asked. 

“Don’t you?” he replied, beginning 
. to see another opening in the distance 
before him. “ Why not? Isn’t Romeo 
the very type of an ardent lover? Isn’t 
Juliet—” 

“But it’s Juliet I don’t like,” inter- 
rupted the young lady. ‘She was too 
forward, I think. I don’t know any- 
body who’d behave like she did, do you? 
Why, she didn’t wait half long enough. 
She told him she loved him really before 
he had proposed, didn’t she? Juliet’s a 
leap-year girl—that’s what I call her.” 

“T don’t want to defend Juliet,” he 
responded. ‘ You see, I’m not Romeo, 
and it’s not Juliet I’m in love with—you 
must know that!” 


40 





There was no mistaking the meaning 
of this last sentence. 

They had been leaning over the railing 
of the balcony. Now when Mr. Payn 
spoke these last words, Miss Carroll stood 
upright suddenly. 

“It’s getting chilly here, isn’t it?” she 
asked, very hurriedly, and in obvious 
perturbation. 

“Don’t go yet, ’Rina—I may eall you 
Rina?’ he urged. “I have something 
I must say to you. [—” 

“Miss Hectorina,” said little Mat 
Hitcheock, still ten feet away from 
them, but eagerly advancing, ‘“ your 
grandmother is very anxious about you. 
She sent me to bring you in.” 

“T’m coming at once,” she answered. 

Little Mat was about to offer his arm, 
when Payn said: “I brought Miss Car- 
roll out, and I will take her back. We 
need not trouble you, Hitchcock.” 


Mt 





“ Tt’s no trouble, I assure you,” Hitch- 
cock explained. 

And the young lady walked back to 
the ball-room escorted by both men. So 
Payn saw a second opportunity slip out 
of his hands without any fault of his 
own. 

And Mrs. Carroll would not hear of 
her granddaughter’s going out on the 
bridge again all that evening. Payn 
danced with her more than once; but 
no man can propose while waltzing ata . 
hop. 

When eleven o’clock came and the 
music ceased, the Royal Marine said 
good-night to Mr. Payn and went down 
to Mr. Dexter’ssupper. Payn gave Mrs. 
Carroll his arm to her hotel. Then he 
came back to the Casino, and strolled out 
on the bridge again. He found a chair 
in a corner, and he lighted a cigar and 
sat down to think over the events of the 


72 





evening and to plan his campaign for 
the next day. . 

As he had passed the dining-room of 
the Casino he had heard Virgie Chubb’s 
loud laughter ring out sharply, and he 
was grieved that the woman he loved 
should be in company he did not ap- 
prove of. La Marguerite was not the 
associate he would have chosen for her, 
nor was Mr. Dexter the man he would 
have selected as her host. The young 
New-Yorker did not like Dexter, who 
had been a lawyer somewhere in Cali- 
fornia before he blossomed out in Chi- 
cago as one of the boldest operators 
in the wheat-pit. There was a coarse 
heartiness about the Westerner which 
was attractive to many, and which prob- 
ably accounted for the success Dexter 
had met with in the smart set of London, 
where he had been received with open 
arms two or three years before; but to 





73 





Warren Payn the man was most distaste- 
ful. In the musician’s fastidious eyes 
Miss Virginia Chubb and Mr. Cable J. 
Dexter were well matched when they 
were together. But Miss Hectorina 
Carroll was made of a different clay, 
more delicate and a finer quality; and 
she had no business to be in their society 
more often than mere chance might ar- 
range it. 

Miss Hectorina Carroll was the centre. 
of his thought as he sat on the bridge 
of the Casino, with the single eye of 
the Beavertail light gazing at him, and 
with the double stare of the Brenton’s 
Reef lightship fixed upon him. He re- 
proached himself with timidity, with 
procrastination, with insufferable irreso- 
lution. It was not his fault that Virgie 
Chubb had interrupted him once and 
that little Mat Hitchcock had interfered 
a second time; but it was his fault that 


74 





he had not made a third opportunity, 
and a fourth, and a fifth, if need had 
been. He knew now that he should 
have forced fortune to aid him. He re- 
solved that when another chance should 
come within his reach he would seize it 
swiftly. 

He heard the hour of midnight tolled 
with pleasing irregularity by the mellow 
bell of the Casino, and he was still re- 
solved never again to be irresolute. How 
long he sat there he did not know, for 
finally he dropped off to sleep in the 
middle of his rearrangement of the past 
and of his dreams for the future. 

Then suddenly it seemed to him that 
he was wide-awake again, and that the 
supper was over, and some of the party 
were coming out on the bridge for a final 
glimpse of the moonlit bay. The loud 
voices of Virgie Chubb and Dexter were 
unmistakable; and then Payn thought 





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75 





he caught the girlish langh of the wom- 
an he loved. He started back into the 
shadow as some of the party stepped 
out on the baleony. He recognized the 
slight figure of a married sister of Mr. 
Beeckman Bleecker’s, who had been ma- 
tronizing the young ladies Mr. Cable J. 
Dexter had entertained at supper. Be- 
hind the matron of the party Payn saw 
Miss Hectorina Carroll. He stepped 
forward and said that he was very glad 
to see her once more. She did not seem 
surprised to meet him again at that hour. 
Leading her to a corner of the broad 
promenade away from the others, he de- 
clared that he had been trying all the 
evening to tell her that he loved her, 
and that he would be a most miserable 
man unless she would marry him. It 
seemed to him that she was taken wholly 
by surprise, and that she hesitated for 
a moment, and that finally she told him 


76 





that she really did not know what to 
say, for she was wholly unprepared for 
his proposal, and although she liked him 
very well, she did not know whether she 
loved him at all. Payn was encouraged 
that she did not reject him absolutely, 
and he urged his suit ardently. Finally 
she agreed to give him his answer on Mon- 
day evening, and during the two inter- 
vening days she promised to investigate 
her feelings, and to discover whether she 
did not really love him a little already. 
Then she bade him to go back to his 
dark corner, for she would not have Vir- 
gie Chubb guess what had been going 
on —no, not for worlds! She did not 
forbid him to come to see her during 
the two days of her self-examination, 
and finally she permitted him to kiss 
her hand. Then she left him and went 
back to the others. Payn sat silently 
in the shadow, listening to the laughter 


77 





of the young ladies at the outbreaks of 
Dexter’s easy humor. At last the ma- 
tron declared that it was time for girls 
to go to bed; and then they went down- 
stairs, all in high spirits as becomes a 
supper-party—all except the Royal Ma- 
rine, to whose silence Virgie Chubb 
made a jocular allusion as they were 
passing out of hearing. 

Every word of this brief conversation 
of his with the woman he loved was 
present to Payn’s memory as he sat in 
his chair in the corner, with his cigar in 
his hand—a cigar extinct and only half 
smoked. When the clock of the Casino 
struck one he roused himself with an 
effort. He had been asleep again. 

Then all at once he found himself 
wide-awake, and wondering whether he 
had been to sleep more than once— 
whether he had not been dreaming when 
he thought he saw her return, and when 


78 





he told her that he loved her, and when 
she promised to give him a final answer 
in forty-eight hours. Had the Royal 
Marine really stood before him after the 
Supper was over? Had he really pro- 
posed? Or was it all an hallucination on 
his part? Before now, more than once, 
his visions had taken on the sharpness 
of reality ; and he had long lingered in 
doubt as to whether some of them were 
actual occurrences or mere phantasms 
of the fancy. None had been more 
vivid than this; none had ever had the 


importance of this; and none had ever — 


puzzled him as this did. 

It was very late when at last he went 
to bed, worn out with perplexity and 
vexed by a problem he found insoluble. 
Finally he recalled the well-known habit 
of dreams to repeat themselves, and he 
determined to submit the question to this 
test, and to abide by the result. If he 


The 


79 





should dream again the whole interview 
with Hectorina, his proposal and her 
promise of a decision on Monday, then 
it had been but a dream the first time; 
it was untrue; it had not happened. If, 
on the other hand, he did not dream it 
again, then it was true; it had happened; 
she knew that he loved her; and she 
would give him his answer in forty- 
eight hours. 

Having thus resolved, he tumbled into 
bed. But he did not dream, as he was 
not able to sleep. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE MORNING SERVICE AT THE CHURCH 


Tue next morning, at a quarter before 
eleven, when the bell ceased to ring in 
the unfinished tower, the little stone 
church at Narragansett Pier was crowd- 
ed to the doors, as it always is in the 
month of Angust. The day was hot 
with a mellow summer heat, but an oc- 
casional breeze which blew lazily from 
behind Point Judith rustled the branch- 
es of the young maples beside the church, 
and rippled the varying greenness of the 
ivy which clad the rough stone walls of 
the sacred edifice. Within the building 
there was an increasing fluttér of fans. 

Miss Hectorina Carroll sat with her 
brother and her grandmother in a pow 





81 





on the centre aisle, almost exactly ona 
line with the organ, in front of which’ 
Mr. Warren Payn had taken his place 
long before the congregation began to 
arrive. In the pew behind her were 
Miss Marlenspuyk and Judge Gillespie, 
and also Mr. Mather Hitchcock and his 
mother. On the other side of the aisle 
Miss Virgie Chubb occupied the fore- 
most pew, having next to her, and to re- 
lieve the flippant levity of her floating 
draperies, the solid figure of Mr. Cable 
J. Dexter. Not far from these were Mr. 
Hill-Bunker with Mr. Beeckman Bleeck- 
er’s married sister, and Mr. Beeckman 
Bleecker with the unmarried sister 
of Mr. Hill-Bunker. Here and there 
throughout the church were scattered 
most of the girls whose acquaintance 
Warren Payn had made during his four 
weeks’ stay at the Pier. But he was not 


conscious of them. The Royal Marine 
6 


82 





had been one of the first to arrive, and 
as the musician had seen her enter the 
door he had turned to the organ, reso- 
lutely refusing to meet her eye. In the 
state of doubt in which he found him- 
self he simply did not dare to look her in — 
the face. He did not know whether he 
had told her that he loved her or not; 
he did not know whether she had lis- 
tened to him or not; he did not know on 
what footing he stood; indeed, he seemed 
to walk in slippery places and to go in 
danger of an irreparable fall; he felt 
himself to be tied in a tangle of doubt 
and difficulty. 

As the service advanced he became 
calmer. Though he did not look at the 
Royal Marine, he asked himself whether 
or not she had seen him, half hidden as 
he was at the side of the church. When 
the time came at last for his Te Deum, 
and the organist slipped out from before 





83 





the instrument and offered the place to 
him, he wondered whether she had no- 
ticed the substitution. Of course he 
had told her about his Te Deum—what 
can young men talk about but their own 
deeds?—and she had been kept informed 
of the difficulties which had arisen to 
delay its performance. She had been 
enlightened as to all the peculiarities of 
all the singers of the amateur quartet 
who were to render it. She was familiar 
with the conceit of the tenor, with the 
selfishness of the soprano, with the jeal- 
ousy of the contralto, and with the stu- 
pidity of the bass. She had been indig- 
nant at their want of appreciation for 
his music, and she had laughed heart- 
ily at his account of the wiles whereby 
he had soothed the vanity and suscepti- 
bility of the singers. 

As the quartet stood up beside him he 
put her out of his thoughts for the mo- 


84 





ment, and concentrated his attention on 
the execution of his composition. As 
often happens, the singers did better 
than he had expected; even the bass 
remembered for once the suggestions 
which he had forgotten regularly at 
every rehearsal. And the composer’s 
share of the work was excellent; his 
music was fresh and firm; it was scholar- 
ly and yet modern; it was truly dramat- 
ic, asa Te Deum ought to be, without 
being in any way operatic and theatri- 
cal, as so many Te Deums are; it was 
not great, for Warren Payn was not a 
great composer, but it was not common- 
place; it had a certain individuality, not 
to call it originality. It had also what 
much modern music composed for the 
services of the church lacks absolutely— 
it had fervor; and while the singers were 
rendering it far better than the compos- 
er had hoped, he felt relieved of all his 





85 





own worries and anxieties. For the mo- 
ment at least he was lifted out of him- 
self. 

But after the Te Deum was ended, 
when he had given up the seat at the 
instrument tothe organist, and when the 
service went on, the artistic excitement 
which had buoyed him up faded away, 
and he was reduced again to a condition 
of miserable doubt. Even when the good 
old bishop went into the pulpit and gave 
out his text, “‘ Love one another,” and 
began to deliver the sermon, Warren 
Payn was not able to concentrate his 
attention on the wise words of the prel- 
ate, who was addressing himself directly 
to the modern men and women he saw 
before him, and who set forth a lofty 
ideal in the plainest and most common- 
sense manner. The composer had a seat 
by the organ, and he had right before 
him and not twenty feet away the pro- 


86 





file of the woman he loved. At first he 
scarcely ventured to glance at her, but 
when he saw that she was intent on the 
preacher, and unconscious of anybody 
else, he was emboldened to let his eyes 
rest on her longingly. She was listen- 
ing to the sermon, gazing steadily at the 
bishop. Her lover gazed steadily at her, 
listening but little. 

As she sat there before him, while the 
summer sunlight filled the church, he 
thought that he had never seen her look- 
ing more lovely or more lovable. She 
sat erect in the pew, her firm, full figure 
carrying her head vigorously and grace- 
fully. Her large eyes were fixed on the 
bishop, and her color came and went in 
response to the simple eloquence of the 
sermon. Her dress—of which her lover 
took but little note, save that he had 
a confused impression of a medley of 
green and brown and white, one tender 


87 





tint melting into another and mingling 
with it inextricably—set off the fresh- 
ness of her young complexion. The 
delicate tones of her attire made him 
see a sudden likeness to a flower, the 
calyx being her broad white straw hat 
with its warped and flaring brim. To 
the man whose eyes were fixed upon 
her with loving devotion she seemed as 
pure as the blossom of a vine in the 
spring-time, and he noted with delight 
the tiny tendrils of hair which escaped 
from her broad braids, and curled care- 
lessly about her neck here and there and 
down over her forehead. 

When he had made an end of staring 
—that is, when he was suddenly strick- 
en with remorse at the rudeness of 
which he had been guilty—he glanced 
about, wondering how it was that every 
one in the church was not also looking 
at her, The young musician flushed 


88 





with indignation when he discovered 
that Mr. Dexter had settled himself 
sideways so that he could see Miss Car- 
roll without the trouble of turning his 
neck, and that the Westerner was taking 
advantage of this attitude most of the 
time. Farther back and on one side 
Warren Payn saw Mr. Hill-Bunker and 
Mr. Beeckman Bleecker, and he saw 
that they were both looking at the Roy- 
al Marine as often as they dared.  Lit- 
tle Mat Hitchcock, too, rarely took his 
eye off her. When Payn detected these 
things he was annoyed that he had to 
share the sight of her with others. He 
wished that he had the right to tell 
them all that she belonged to him, and 
that if they wished to gaze at her bean- 
ty they must ask his permission ; and he 
did not know whether he would grant 
the privilege or refuse it. . 
The sermon drew to its conclusion. 





89 





The Royal Marine was still listening 
with unflagging interest, only now and 
again taking her attention from the 
preacher to keep Her Majesty’s Mid- 
shipmite in order, and to remind him of 
the sanctity of the edifice wherein they 
were. Perhaps she was not wholly un- 
conscious of the admiring glances cast 
upon her, for she was aware that her 
gown and her hat were both becoming 
to her; but she did not pay these tokens 
of admiration the return compliment of 
seeming to see them. She kept her 
eyes fixed on the bishop; not once did 
they wander towards the organ, where 
the man who loved her was sitting in 
self-torment. He dreaded to meet her 
eye, and yet he could not understand 
how it was that she never once glanced 
in his direction all that morning. He 
wished that he could go to her boldly 
and demand her reasons for refusing to 


90 





look at him. Then he remembered the 
meeting on the bridge of the Casino the 
night before—if, indeed, there had real- 
ly been any meeting—and all his doubts 
came back upon him again with redoub- 
led force. He did not know how to ap- 
proach her, and therefore he did not 
dare make an effort to speak to her. He 
was sure, in fact, that he ought to avoid 
speaking to her. A shiver of fear seized 
him, and he resolved to keep away from 
her until he could find out just what 
had happened the night before. 

Then the bishop brought his sermon 
to an end at last, and the rector gave — 
out a hymn. While this was being sung 
Warren Payn saw Miss Marlenspuyk 
looking at him intently. She was close 
behind the Royal Marine. He under- 
stood at once what she meant. She had 
promised to help him to a quiet talk 
with the woman he loved. She had 


91 





agreed to lure away Grandma, so that 
he could walk home from church with 
’Rina, and propose to her then and there. 
But this agreement was made before he 
had gone to sleep on the bridge of the 
Casino. When he had made it he want- 
ed to be left alone with the Royal Ma- 
rine; now there was nothing he was 
more afraid of. Unfortunately it was 
impossible to convey to Miss Marlen- 
spuyk across the crowded pews of the 
church any information as to this com- 
plete change of his wishes. She was 
firmly convinced, of course, that he still 
desired a chance to tell the young lady 
that he loved her. Being so convinced, 
she would surely so manceuvre as to ac- 
complish her purpose. She was arbi- 
trary, as the lover knew; and she was 
adroit ; and what she had determined to 
do was likely to be done. She would 
certainly arrange an interview between 


92 





him and the Royal Marine, despite his 
utmost endeavor. If he came within 
her reach after service it would be im- 
possible for him to escape her. She 
would carry out his supposed desires 
unfailingly and unflinchingly, no. mat- 
ter how he might struggle to prevent 
it. 

While the congregation were singing 
the doxology he came to a resolution. 
He dared not face ’Rina then, and as the 
only way to prevent Miss Marlenspuyk 
from bringing about a meeting he made 
up his mind to remain in church until 
the congregation had dispersed. He 
determined not to leave his harbor of 
refuge near the organ until he was as- 
sured that the coast was clear. There- 
fore when there was a general move- 
ment after the benediction he sat still. 
He refused to catch Miss Marlenspuyk’s 
eye, or to accept the invitation it con- 


en 





95 





veyed. He was glad that the old maid 
and Judge Gillespie and the Royal Ma- 
rine and Her Majesty’s Midshipmite and 
Grandma all made ready to move down 
the centre aisle together. If Miss Mar- 
Jenspuyk had been nearer to him he 
knew he would have been unable to re- 
sist her. As it was, she seemed sur- 
prised that he did not come forward at 
once to join them, and she made excuses 
for delay, so as to give him ample op- 
portunity. Then, when at last the little 
group started towards the door of the 
church, Miss Marlenspuyk put up her 
glasses for a final glance in his direction. 
To all these mute but obvious entreaties 
he remained insensible, and the party 
passed down the aisle, and left him still 
at the organ in apparent unconscious- 
ness of their presence. It seemed to 
him that there was an expression of sur- 
_ prise which flitted for a moment across 


94 





the face of the woman he loved as she 
saw that he failed to come forward to 
join her. 

As Cable J. Dexter and Virgie Chubb 
passed before the organ they both looked 
at the musician and smiled quizzically. 
That smile puzzled him. What did it 
mean? What did they know? They 
had been at the.Casino the night before, 
and perhaps they had overheard his pro- 
posal—that is,if he had proposed. Their 
smile could not mean that they sus- 
pected the strange dilemma in which he 
was placed. That was impossible, of 
course; and yet there was something in 
their expression which he could not ex- - 
plain. In his perplexity he turned and 
looked after them, and framed in the 
stone doorway, standing in front of the 
broad wooden doors decorated with iron 
anchors, recalling those on the skirt of 
the yachting-dress in which he had first 


95 





seen her, was the Royal Marine, who 
had paused to say good-morning to La 
Marguerite. 

In haste he turned his back to the 
door, and addressed himself to the quar- 
tet, who had also lingered. He thanked 
them for the trouble they had taken 
with his Te Deum ; and he listened po- 
litely to the suggestion of the soprano 
that if she ever sung it again there were 
two bars of her solo that she hoped he 
would transpose for her, as she at least 
was not afraid of taking a high note. 
Then, when they also were gone, so- 
prano and tenor, contralto and bass, the 
composer delayed the organist in need- 
less talk for ten minutes longer, for fear 
that Miss Marlenspuyk might have de- 
vised some means of detaining the Roy- 
al Marine. 

When at last he ventured forth, and 
was walking swiftly towards his hotel, 


96 





looking neither to the right nor to the 
left, he almost stumbled over Her Maj- 
esty’s Midshipmite. 

“Excuse me,” he stammered out, 
scarcely daring to raise his eyes for fear 
that the boy’s sister might be near at 
hand. 

“Oh, it’s Mr. Payn!” said the boy. 
“ How are you?” 

“Tm very well, thank you,” he re- 
sponded. 

“You don’t look well,” the boy re- 
turned. “ You look scared.” | 

“Do I?” he asked, helplessly. 

“?Deed you do,” was the response of 
Her Majesty’s Midshipmite, who had on 
the sailor suit in which Payn had first 
seen him, and the same sailor hat, with 
H. M.S. Victory stamped in gold on its 
band. 

“T’m ina hurry,” explained the young 
man. 


iy Bt x 
Treo aney, 


97 





“Oh, I say, Mr. Payn,” the boy con- 
tinned, “Sister “Rina was asking about 
you this morning.” 

“About me?” echoed the composer, 
stopping abruptly in his walk. ‘ What 
—what did she say ?” 

“She was talking to Miss Chubb— 
Virgie Chubb, you know—” 

“Yes, I know, I know,” the young 
man repeated. 

“ And she said,” the boy went on— 
“she said she wanted to know whether 
you were awake yet. Had you been 
getting up late, Mr. Payn ?” 

But the boy got no answer to his ques- 
tion, for Mr. Payn was striding away 
impatiently. 

7 


CHAPTER V 


MISS MARLENSPUYK’S READING-HOUR 


Warren Payn freed himself from 
Her Majesty’s Midshipmite as swiftly 
as he could, and as courteously, for he 
remembered always that the boy was 
her brother. Then he walked rapidly 
towards the beach. He knew that the 
Royal Marine never “ went in” on Sun- 
day, and a glimpse of the Casino clock 
told him that the bathing-hour was al- 
most past. On his way to the water he - 
met the bathers swarming back to their 
hotels for the early Sunday dinner. By 
the time he was ready for his swim the 
beach was almost deserted, save for a 
few belated excursionists. The surf was 
high and fierce, just what he would have 





99 





wished it to be, and after he had bat- 
tled with it for nearly half an hour he 
felt as though he had washed himself 
free of many doubts. Refreshed by 
his watery exercise, he was able to take 
a dispassionate view of his strange posi- 
tion. 

While he was dressing he made up his 
mind to go and tell the whole story to 
Miss Marlenspuyk. He was in dire want 
of advice, and he felt also the irresistible 
pressure of a desire to have a confidant. 
And he knew no one to whom he could 
go but the old maid, who had always 
befriended him, and who, indeed, had 
introduced him to the woman he loved. 
Besides, Miss Marlenspuyk was a very 
clever woman, and her advice was likely 
to be worth taking. Having determined 
to consult her and to act according to 
her suggestions, the composer finished 
his toilet and walked to the Casino. In 


100 





his present frame of mind he was not 
willing to sit through the long hotel 
dinner, and to talk to his neighbors at 
table on the usual personal topics, so he 
went into the Casino and dined by him- 
self. Then he smoked a cigar on one of 
the rear verandas, undisturbed by any 
one. At last the time came when he 
knew that Miss Marlenspuyk, having 
finished her dinner also, would have set- 
tled down to read the Sunday papers, 
which she used to call her Half-Hour 
with the Worst Authors. 
He found her alone in her favorite 
corner at one end of the veranda of: her 
hotel. She was seated in a little rock- 
ing-chair ; she had on her neat little gold 
spectacles; she held in her hand one 
sheet of a Sunday newspaper, and the 
other sheets lay in waves about her feet. 
It was obvious that she had been read- 
ing the latest news from Europe, and 


101 





that some princeling or kinglet had been 
getting himself into trouble. 

“TJ don’t see,” she began, as the mu- 
sician drew up a chair and took his seat 
beside her—‘ I don’t see why the people 
of Europe should be bothered with the 
personal peculiarities of their royal fami- 
lies. I never could understand why 
one of the higher anthropoid apes could 
not be trained to discharge all the func- 
tions of a constitutional monarch—could 
you ?” 

He looked at her as though he did not 
apprehend what she was saying. He 
was so engrossed with his own perplex- 
ity that he could not listen to anything 
else. 

“Miss Marlenspuyk,” he began, draw- 
ing his chair a little closer, and speak- 
ing in subdued tones, “can I tell you a 
story ?” 

Wait till ve taken my glasses off,” 


102 





the old maid responded, ‘‘and then you 
can tell me anything.” 

“Thank you,” he began. 

“ Indeed,” she interrupted, “ there are 
several things I want you to tell me very 
much. Why did you avoid me this 
morning when I was keeping my prom- 
ise to you—when I had Grandma under 
_ control, so that you could walk with 
Rina and ask her to marry you? Id 
like to know what explanation you have 
to offer of your extraordinary conduct. 
Even before I hear it, I want to tell you 
that I think you are a most negligent 
and dilatory wooer. Perhaps you can 
explain your strange behavior. I hope - 
you can; but I assure you I shall be 
very exacting and hard to please. Giv- 
ing you this solemn warning, by way 
of encouragement, I'll let you have 
the floor—as they say in Washing- 
ton.” 





3 


103 





Having said this, she took off her 
spectacles, and put them into a little 
leather case marked with her monogram. 
Then she folded the portion of the news- 
paper she had on her lap, and laid it on 
the chair which supported her feet. 
Picking up the other sheets of the paper 
from the floor of the veranda, she folded 
them also, one by one, and placed them 
on top of the first portion. When she 
had made an end of this she looked up 
at the young man who was waiting 
silent beside her. 

“Well?” she said at last, with a rising 

inflection. 

Well,” he echoed, hesitating,“ I don’t 
really know where to begin—” 

“So I perceive,” she interrupted. 

“But I suppose,” he gained courage 
to say—“ I suppose I had best begin at 
the beginning—” 

“You had best begin somewhere,” 


104 





she declared, “or you will never be able 
to end at the end.” 

“The real beginning is this, I think,” 
he responded. “I’m absent - minded, 
and I’m given to day-dreams, and so 
sometimes I don’t really know whether 
I’ve done something or whether Pve 
only dreamed it.” 

“As a girl, I used to dream that I 
could fly,” said the old maid; “but when 
I waked up I always knew I couldn’t. 
dn fact, ’ve never been in doubt about 
any of my dreams. But what have you 
been dreaming about now, and how did 
any dream prevent your proposing to 
the Royal Marine this morning when I 
had cleared the way for you?” 

“That’s just it,” he explained, pite- 
ously. ‘ve dreamed that Pve pro- 
posed to her—or at least I may have 
dreamed it, or I may have done it; I 
don’t know.” 


oe eee 


105 





Miss Marlenspuyk turned and faced 
him, and looked him full in the eye. 

“ Well,’ she said at last, “I think you 
had best begin at the very beginning 
and tell me the whole story.” 

So he told her the whole story, and 
she listened intently, not interrupting 
him once. When he had made an end 
of his tale she drew a long breath. 

“Do you mean to tell me,” she asked, 
“that you really don’t know whether 
you have proposed marriage to Miss 
Hectorina Carroll or not?” 

= That’s just it,” he urged. “I was 

so dazed from dozing that ’m uncer- 
tain whether I was asleep or awake at 
the time when [ thought I was propos- 
ing to her.” 

“Why, [never heard of such a thing 

in all my life!” she declared. 

“No,” he admitted, with a pitiful pride. 
“ I suppose it is a unique experience.” 


106 





“ Unique?” she repeated. “I should 
think so! Of course I know that every 
man is the HOae of his own dreams, but 
then—” 

Apparently wor eh failed her, for she 
broke off abruptly. 

He sat silent, not knowing what to 
say. 

“Well,” she began again at last, “they 

say it’s impossible to have both tact and 
truth, and I’ve prided myself that I had 
at least tact; but I must say that you 
have put yourself into a most puzzling 
predicament. What are you going to 
do?” : 
“That’s just what I came to you to 
find out,” he said, imploringly. “ You 
are my only friend, and you are so 
clever, and I will do exactly what you 
tell me.” 

“But I don’t know what to tell you,” 
she responded. 


107 





“Perhaps I had best go straight to 
Rina,” he suggested, “and throw my- 
self on her mercy, and ask her whether 
I have proposed to her—” 

“ Certainly not!” declared Miss Mar- 
lenspuyk—“ that is, if you do want to 
marry her.” 

“Of course I do!” he assured her. 

“No girl would marry you,” the old 
maid returned, “after you had confessed 
to her that you really didn’t know 
whether you had proposed to her or 
not. You can see that for yourself. 
You must not ask her. Indeed, you 
mustn’t see her—you must keep out of 
her sight until we can find out whether 
you have asked her to marry you or 
not. You say she didn’t accept you?” 

“She didn’t accept me—no,” he an- 
swered ; “but she didn’t reject me either. 
She asked for time—and if I have time 
too, I’m sure I can persuade her to love 


108 





me, can’t 1? But I can’t if you won't 
let me see her.” 

“Do you suppose she would consult 
Grandma?” asked Miss Marlenspuyk. 

“T don’t know,” he replied. “She’s 
very independent, you see. She does 
her own thinking. But then she may 
have told her grandmother, perhaps.” 

“Tf she has told Grandma,” the old 
maid declared, “I can find out, for Mrs. 
Carroll won’t keep a secret from me— 
that is, if I really want to know it. If 
she has told Grandma, then we are all 
right, because you will know that you 
were awake when you proposed to her, 
and that she is to give you an answer 
to-morrow, and you can put forth all 
your powers of persuasion in the mean- 
time. But if she hasn’t told Grandma, 
then we are no better off, because we 
don’t know whether she is merely keep- 
ing her own counsel, or whether you 


109 





did propose in your sleep, after all. 
Still, we have a chance, and I will seek 
out Mrs. Carroll at once.” 

“Thank you,” said the young man, 
deeply grateful. 

“ But we must not count on that; for, 
as you said, the Royal Marine is very 
independent,” Miss Marlenspuyk went 
on. “And there really isn’t anybody 
else to help us out; for when you pro- 
posed—that is, if you did propose at all 
—nobody heard you but ’Rina, and we 
can’t ask her. Who else was at the sup- 
per ?” 

Payn gave her the name of Mr. Dex- 
ter’s guests. 

“ Virgie Chubb —I don’t like her ; 
she has no manners at all,” said Miss 
Marlenspuyk. “ But she is fond of hear- 
ing herself talk. Perhaps I could cross- 
question her without getting a crooked 
answer.” 


110 





“Do you think she overheard me pro- 
pose?” asked the young man, recalling 
the quizzical expression in the faces of 
Mr. Dexter and Miss Chubb as they 
had passed him in church that morning. 
He flushed red at the thought of his 
conversation with the woman he loved 
having been heard by La Marguerite. 
And yet at the same time he would have 
been glad if he were absolutely sure 
that she had overheard, for it would 
release him from his uncomfortable un- 
certainty. 

“T think she is quite capable of lis- 
tening,” said the old maid, “ whether 
she heard anything of importance or not. 
So is that Dexter man—though he is a 
man, after all, and twice too good for 
her. I will say for her, however, that 
she has the grace to be a little afraid of 
me. She knows who I am, of course, 
and she will be greatly complimented if 





111 





I stop and speak to her this evening 
after tea. So if she knows anything I 
ean find that out. And perhaps, as you 
say, she did overhear your proposal— 
that is, of course, if you did propose at 
all, which is what we want to discover.” 

Warren Payn could not but wince a 
little every time Miss Marlenspuyk im- 
paled him on the horns of his dilemma. 

“ You are very good to me,” he said, 
dolefully. 

‘Tm really very much interested in 
your case,” she replied ; “ it is so extraor- 
dinary that I want to know the end of 
it, just as if it were a sensational novel.” 

He looked at her plaintively. 

“What am I to do,” he asked at last, 
“while you are doing all these things for 
me ?” 

“Do? she answered. “You must 
keep out of the way of the Royal Ma- 
rine, for one thing.” 


112 





“But Pve an engagement with her 
for this afternoon,” he cried, sorrowful- 
ly. “We are all going to the Rocks 
together at five o’clock—she and I and 
half a dozen more.” 

“You had best let her and half a 
dozen more go to the Rocks without you 
for once,” Miss Marlenspuyk replied. 
“In fact, you had best go way for 
twenty-four hours.” 

“Leave the Pier?’ he said, sadly. 
‘Where must I go?” 

The old maid was touched by his will- 
ingness to obey her. 

“You need not go far,” she answered ; 
“oo to Newport. And you need not 
stay long; come back to-morrow after- 
noon.” 

“ But what reason can I give for go- 
ing, and for breaking my engagement 
to walk on the Rocks?” he asked. 

She reached forward and picked up 





113 





the folded Sunday newspaper on the 
chair before her. 

“Didn’t you tell me that you had 
promised to explain to Mr. Joshua Hoff- 
man all about the new organ you want 
for St. Martha’s ?” she inquired. 

“ Yes,” he answered. “ What of it ?” 

“T suppose you haven’t read any of 
the papers this morning?” she queried. 
“Jf you had, you would have seen that 
Mr. Joshua Hoffman is now at New- 
port, and that he leaves there to-mor- 
row, and that he starts on Tuesday for 
Kurope, to be gone all winter. Now, go 
back to your hotel, and write a non- 
committal note to the Royal Marine, 
telling her that you have to go over to 
Newport at once to see Mr. Hoffman, 
but that you will return in the morn- 
ing, and that you hope to see her to- 
morrow evening. So it will be all 


right, whether you have proposed or 
8 


114 





not, and whether she has promised to 
give you an answer to-morrow evening 
or not.” 

“T see,” he said, with a flash of re- 
viving hope. 

“Then,” she went on, “after you 
have sent that note, you take a horse 
and go over to Newport. I suppose you 
had best see Mr. Hoffman if you can, 
and tell him what he wants to know. 
But go to the Ocean House, and as soon 
as I have had a chat with Grandma and 
a talk with La Marguerite I will tele- 
graph you. Perhaps the telegram will 
put you out of your misery, and per- 
haps it won’t. But I will do my best 
for you. Now be off with you!” 

“J will go at once,” he said, rising 
with alacrity. “Iwill do anything you 
tell me. And how can I ever thank 
you for all the trouble you are taking 
for me ?” | . 


\ > 
Reds eed a . 
Siete) er eee 


115 





“ Well,’ the old maid answered, 
“vou can repay me easily. If you ever 
do propose to ’Rina, and she accepts 
you, and you are married, you must 
make her happy, and I shall be doubly 
paid. She is a dear girl, and I am very 
fond of her.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CONCERT AT THE CASINO 


Tue vast verandas of the Ocean House 
at Newport were almost deserted at ten 
o’clock that Sunday night, when War- 
ren Payn returned from a_ prolonged 
and ineffectual endeavor to find Mr. 
Joshua Hoffman. The musician went 
to the office of the hotel for the key 
of his room, resolved to go to bed and 
try to sleep. With the key the clerk 
handed him a telegram, which he tore. 
open with feverish haste, hoping that 
it would put him out of his misery at 
last. 

The telegram was from Miss Marlen- 
spuyk, and it read as follows: 

‘Grandma knows nothing. The Daisy 





117 


_—— 


says she heard you snore. Don’t think 
she heard anything else.” 

Unconscious of his acts, Payn dropped 
the flimsy paper on the desk of the ho- 
tel office, and stared the hotel clerk 
straight in the eye. Then he recovered 
himself, and picked up the telegram 
and read it again. It gave him no cer- 
tain information, and it left him in 
darkness and in doubt as before. Ap- 
parently there was absolutely no one 
who knew whether or not he had asked 
the Royal Marine to marry him except 
that young lady herself, and she was 
evidently resolved to keep her own 
counsel. 

In disgust at the absurd situation in 
whieh he still found himself, the young 
man crushed the telegram in his hand 
and flung it into the waste-basket. Then 
he stooped and picked it up, and read 
it a third time. As he did so a faint 


118 





ray of hope appeared. Miss Marlen- 
spuyk was not sure that Virgie Chubb 
had not overheard his proposal. The 
telegram declared, “Don’t think she 


heard anything else.” But this was only » 


the old maid’s opinion. Perhaps she 
was in error. Perhaps The Daisy knew 
more than she was willing to let Miss 
Marlenspuyk guess. There was a dim 
and remote chance here, and, feeble as 
it was, the composer clung to it eagerly. 
He looked at his watch, and found that 
it was nearly a quarter after ten; and 
he knew that it was hopeless for him to 
attempt to return to the Pier at that 
hour on a Sunday night. 

So he possessed his soul in patience, 
and went to his room and to bed, and 
after a while to sleep. His- slumber 
was broken and fitful, yet it was solid 
enough in its fragments to allow a troop 
of nightmares to ride rough-shod over 


119 





him, one after the other, each swifter 
of pace than the other, and more terrible 
of aspect. : 

Towards morning he fell into a deeper 
sleep, and he had a strange dream. He 
dreamed that he saw Miss Virgie Chubb 
growing out of the sands of the sea- 
shore, an actual daisy, and that Miss 
Marlenspuyk stood over her, plucking 
the petals one by one, and saying, “ He 
did—he didn’t.” Payn knew at once 
that the old maid was trying to discover 
whether or not he had proposed to the 
Royal Marine, and in his dream he 
thought it a most excellent device, and 
he wondered why it had not occurred 
to him before. With a lively desire to 
learn whether he did or he didn’t, he 
watched the fatal operation upon La 
Marguerite ; but, of course, before any 
final decision was reached he waked out 
of his sleep, still in uncertainty. 


120 





After breakfast he attempted again 
to find Mr. Hoffman, and this time he 
succeeded. When he had made an end 
of the business which was his excuse for 
being in Newport, the morning was 
wellnigh gone. Payn rode back to 
Narragansett Pier, arriving at his own 
hotel just as the dinner-bell rang. He 
had been gone a little less than twenty- 
four hours, and his trip across the bay 
had given him a sufficient excuse, for 
keeping away from the woman he loved. 
But now he was back at the Pier, and 
he was bare of excuses, and he did not 
know what it was best for him to do 
next. 

Naturally he went again to see Miss 
Marlenspuyk, entering her hotel by the 
side door, and peering about the veran- 
da to make sure that neither Mrs. Car- 
roll nor her granddaughter was with 
the old maid. 


121 





When at last he approached Miss 
Marlenspuyk her first words encouraged . 
him. 

“You needn’t look so scared,” she 
said; “the Royal Marine isn’t here. 
Really I feel sorry for you—but I sup- 
pose people with the artistic tempera- 
ment are always more emotional. Some- 
times I find myself doubting whether 
the game of life is worth the candle— 
and I’m sure it isn’t, if you burn the 
candle at both ends, as you are doing 
now. You look as white as a ghost 
with the dyspepsia.” 

“ How is she?” he asked; “‘and where 
is she ?” | 

“She is very well,” Miss Marlenspuyk 
answered, “and she has gone with Grand- 
ma to spend the day with a Southern 
friend who has a house half-way down 
to Point Judith—so you can’t see her 
till to-morrow.” 


122 





“Then I don’t believe I proposed to 
her,” he returned, promptly. ‘ Because, 
if I did, she agreed to give me an an- 
swer to-night, and if she had made that 
agreement I’m sure she wouldn’t break 
it by going away for the evening.” 

“JT thought you didn’t want to see 
her till you had found out absolutely 
whether you had spoken or not,” Miss 
Marlenspuyk retorted. | 

“T don’t know what I want,” he an- 
swered. ‘Of course I want to see her, 
for ’m not happy out of her sight. 
And then, again, while I’m in this un- 
certainty I’m afraid to go near her, for 
fear some stupid blunder of mine may 
spoil all my chances. It’s a very em- 
barrassing situation, isn’t it?” 

“It is indeed,” she responded, sym- 
pathetically. “I wish I had been able 
to help you out of it. But Grandma 
didn’t know anything—that I’m sure 


123 





of—and La Marguerite wouldn’t tell 
me anything, if she knows it—and [’m 
sure I don’t know whether she does or 
not.” 

“T’ll talk to her myself,” the musician 
declared. “I'll get it ont of her some- 
how. I think she will be so glad to 
tease me that if she knows anything 
she will be quite incapable of keeping 
it to herself.” 

“Yes,” said Miss Marlenspuyk, re- 
flectively, “I suppose you could coax 
an underbred girl like that to talk about 
anything—even about her own eaves- 
dropping.” 

‘And then, even if I don’t learn any- 
thing from her, ?m going to make an 
end of this suspense,” he went on. “I 
can’t stand it any longer. I’ve got to 
do something. I’ve got to know the 
truth—I don’t mean about my proposal 
—I mean about ’Rina. LTve got to 


124 





know whether she loves me or not. 
I’m so worried now that m getting 
desperate.” 

“IT can understand that, you poor 
boy,” she said, commiseratingly. “ Yet 
they say that eels get used to being 
skinned, and that the lobsters no longer 
mind being boiled to death. You have 
been in hot water so long now that I 
thought perhaps—” 

She caught his eyes fixed on Bie. re- 
proachfully, and so she broke off. 

“Tf she refuses me now,” he declared, 
“after all this, I don’t know what I 
shall do!” 

“T can tell you what to do this after- 
noon,” the old maid responded. ‘Go 
and play tennis—play hard—play until 
it is too dark to see the balls. That’s 
where you men have the advantage of 
us poor women. You can take violent 
exercise and drive away care, while all 


125 





we can do is to sew—and sewing is so 
insipid. Tve seen the time when I 
felt like running the needle into my 
heart.”’ 

It was a relief for him to laugh lightly 
at her vehemence, as he rose from the 
chair beside her. 

“Your advice is good,” he returned, 
“Cas it always is; and I’ll take it, and take 
the exercise. I wish I could get little 
Mat Hitchcock to play with me. Id 
make it uncomfortable for him to-day ; 
and he fancies himself at tennis too!” 

She smiled in her turn. ‘ There,” 
she said, “run along now and _ play. 
And if you get any information out of 
La Marguerite, let me know at once, 
won't you?” : 

“Of course I will,’ he responded, 
taking his leave. 

She watched him as he walked away 
with the springing step of youth. She 


126 





smoothed her white hair, and sighed 
gently; then she adjusted her glasses, 
and took up her sewing again. 

As it happened, the first man whom 
Warren Payn met as he came out on 
the tennis-grounds of the Casino was 
little Mat Hitchcock, who promptly ac- 
cepted his challenge. They were both 
good average players, neither of them 
of tournament rank, but that afternoon 
they played the best tennis of their 
lives. The first set was the hardest 
fought, and Payn won it finally, 10-8, 
and he won all the others—7—5, 6-4, 
6-8, 6-8, 6-0. This love-set was too 
much for little Mat; he lost his temper, 
and threw his racket on the court indig- 
_nantly, and said that he had never seen a 
such luck in his life, and that it was 
simply disgusting. So the musician 
went to his hotel tired, of course, but 
in a far happier frame of mind. He 





M 


127 





took a bath, and had a sharp appetite 
for his supper. 

After the usual evening repast in Au- 
gust at the Pier—bluefish and black- 
berries—he lighted a cigarette, and 
strolled leisurely back to the Casino. 
He wished to be there early, because 
the leader of the little orchestra had 
asked his permission to include in the 
programme of that evening a selection 
from Dontezwma, Warren Payn’s only 
comic opera, which had been sung dur- 
ing a brief season at one of the New 
York theatres three or four years before. 

At the very moment when the com- 
poser was lighting a second cigarette, 
Miss Marlenspuyk, in the parlor of her 


__ hotel, was surprised by a visit from the 


Royal Marine. 

“But I thought you were not going 
to be back till late to-night !” she cried, 
in astonishment. 


128 





“Tt looked a little like it was going 
to rain after supper,” the young lady an- 
swered, “and Grandma reckoned she’d 
rather be back here. But now we are 
here, Grandma allows it won’t rain, and 
she wants to know if you’ll go over to 
the Casino with us this evening.” 

Miss Marlenspuyk hesitated for a mo- 
ment, wishing that she could devise some 
indirect means of ascertaining just how 
the composer stood in the Royal Ma- 
rine’s opinion. 

“Do come,” the girl went on, laying 
her hand affectionately on the old maid’s 


arm. ‘Id love to have you, and Grand- © 


ma is always chirped up after she’s been 
talking to you about your old friends in 
the So’th.” 

“T shall be delighted to come, my 
dear,” Miss Marlenspuyk responded, 
rising. ‘Jl send for my shawl.” 

While they were waiting for this the 


ag 


129 





young woman and the old walked up 
and down the long veranda on one side 
of the hotel. And suddenly Miss Mar- 
lenspuyk had an inspiration. 

“Excuse my asking such a question, 
Rina, my dear,” she began, linking her 
arm in the girl’s, “but have you and 
Mr. Payn quarrelled ?” 

“ Quaw’led !” echoed ’Rina. ‘“ The 
idea! Why, I haven’t seen him for two 
days.” 

“ Ah!’ Miss Marlenspuyk responded. 
“Not since the hop at the Casino on 
Saturday night ?” 

“Not since the hop,” the young ane 
repeated. Then she checked herself. 
and smiled. “ That is to say,” she went 
on, “I haven’t spoken.to him since the 
hop, but [ve seen him since. I saw 
him in church yesterday, of cou’se, and 
I saw him Saturday night after the hop, 


out on the bridge, where we all went 
9 


130 





for a breath of fresh air after that sup- 
per.” 

Miss Marlenspuyk had become so in- 
terested in the composer’s extraordinary 
dilemma that it was with an almost per- 
ceptible shade of anxiety that she asked, 
“ Didn’t he speak to you then ?” 

The girl laughed out, and hers was a 
silvery, happy laugh. 

“Why, Miss Ma’lenspuyk,” she cried, 
“how could he? He was fast asleep— 
and, do you know, I thought I almost 
heard him snaw!” 

Miss Marlenspuyk laughed also. She 
had the answer to the enigma now. 
There was only one person in the world 
who knew whether Warren Payn was 
asleep or awake when he thought he 
had asked ’Rina Carroll to marry him, 
and that one person had declared that 
he was asleep when she had seen him 
last. ; 


131 





“But what made you think we had 
quaw’led, Miss Ma’lenspnyk ?”’ the girl 
began. 

The bell-boy brought her shawl to 
the old maid, who took it and thanked 
him graciously. Then turning to the 
Royal Marine, and ignoring altogether 
the girl’s question, she said: “Can you 
excuse me a moment, my dear? I must 
write a note before I go.” 

“T’ll wait for you out here on the 
po’ch,” the young lady answered. 

Miss Marlenspuyk bade the bell-boy 
follow her. She went into the office of 
the hotel, and taking out one of her 
visiting-cards, she wrote on it, hastily: 
“TY have seen the lady. It is all right. 
You were dreaming.” : 

Sealing this in an envelope, she di- 
rected it to Mr. Warren Payn, and told 
the bell-boy to take it at once to the 
-musician’s hotel. 


132 





As the boy sped down the steps, glad 
to run an errand for her, the old maid 
joined the Royal Marine on the veran- 
da, and they started to get Grandma 
and to go together to the Casino. 

But of course Miss Marlenspuyk’s 
reassuring message did not find Warren 
Payn at his hotel, and, in fact, it did 
not come into his hands until near mid- 
night, when he returned to his room 
after a most exciting and memorable 
evening. 

When the bell-boy left the envelope 
at the hotel, the musician had been for 
ten minutes in the billiard-room of the 
Casino, perched on a high chair near 
one of the windows which opened on 
the broad upper gallery. Thus placed 
he could hear the music distinctly, and 
he could watch a billiard mateh between 
two of the best players at the Pier that 
summer. 


153 





While one of the players was chalk- 
ing his cue preparatory to a most difh- 
cult carom, Payn heard the long laugh 
of Miss Virgie Chubb. Gazing hastily 
out of the window, he saw that La 
Marguerite was promenading with two 
other girls. He resolved to seize the 
opportunity. 

To the great surprise of Miss Chubb, 
whom the composer had hitherto rather 
avoided than sought, he joined the three 
girls and insisted upon talking to her, 
succeeding at last in cutting loose from . 
her companions and in bearing La 
Marguerite off for a promenade with 
him alone. He was in good spirits ; he 
felt as though the hour was favorable, 
and as though the end of his perplexity 
was at hand. So he rattled along, lead- 
ing Virgie on further and further, and 
briskly keeping up his end of the con- 
versation. All the while he was seek- 


134 





ing how he should begin his inquisition 
into her knowledge of his acts two 
nights before. 

Before he could plan an attack, 
chance gave him an opening. 

“Last time I saw you up here on this 
floor of the Casino you weren’t so talk- 
ative,” said La Marguerite, with one of 
her loud laughs. 

“That was the night before last, 
wasn’t it ?” he returned, eagerly. 

She nodded, still langhing. 

“ Well,’ he pursued, “if I wasn’t 
talking, what was I doing?” 

“You were snoring!” she cried. 
“That’s what you were doing. You 
were asleep in the moonlight, out there 
over the bridge. Come along now, and 
I'll show you the place.” She took his 
arm, and he suffered himself to be led. 

But when they came to the top of the 
stairs they found themselves face to face 


135 





with another couple, Mr. Cable J. Dex- 
ter and Miss Hectorina Carroll. Fol- 
lowing behind them half-way down the 
stairs were Mrs. Carroll and Miss Mar- 
lenspuyk. 

Payn stepped back in astonishment. 
Over the Royal Marine’s shoulder he 
could see Miss Marlenspuyk nodding 
and smiling and making strange signs. 
He felt sure that she was trying to con- 
vey to him some important information, 
although he could not make out what it 
was. He watched her lips closely as 
they moved in silent speech, but his 
eyes did not help him to her meaning 
any better than his ears. 

And while he was thus engaged the 
Royal Marine stood before him, won- 
dering at the extraordinary contortions 
of his visage, as he unconsciously imi- 
tated the movement of Miss Marlen- 
spuyk’s mouth. She wore the same* 


136 





yachting costume in which he had first 
seen her, with the V. R. and the crown 
on her sleeve; but as he did not see her 
at all he did not remark her costume. 
She stood alone, for when the two 
couples had come together Virgie 
Chubb had abandoned Payn promptly, 
and had immediately taken possession 
of Dexter. The Chicago grain-operator 
looked at the musician with an amused 
smile ; then he winked; then he offered — 
his arm to La Marguerite, and they 
walked off together, leaving Payn stand- 
ing helpless by the side of the woman 
whom he loved, and to whom he longed 
to speak. 

On the landing below Mra Carroll | 
and Miss Marlenspnyk had been de- 
-tained by three old ladies who were go- 
ing down-stairs, and who broke at once 
into a most animated conversation, from 
which the old maid tried vainly to de- 


137 





tach herself. At last she made a final 
and despairing gesture to the musician, 
and began to answer the questions 
which two of the old ladies poured out 
upon her. 

Then Warren Payn saw that he 
should have to rely wholly on himself. 
“Shall we take a little walk too?” he 
asked. 

“JT began to think you were never 
going to speak to me again,” she said, 
as they moved away towards the bridge 
side by side, and keeping step to the 
music of a march which was floating 
out from the orchestra on the lower 
veranda—the first notes of the selection 
from his opera of AZontezuma. 

“T—[—lJI was so surprised, you 
know,” he stammered — “so surprised 
to see you here. I thought you were 
not going to be back this evening.” 

“Oh, I meant to be back all the 


138 





time, you know,” she returned, quickly 
—‘“as soon as I heard that they were 
going to play the tunes from your 
opera.” Then, as though afraid that 
she might have said more than she had 
intended, she added, with even greater 
rapidity, ‘‘ Besides, Grandma wanted 
to come back herself; she thought it 
looked like it was going to rain.” 

“Tt was very good of you to want to 
listen to my music,” he responded, ex- 
panding joyously, as he always did in 
her presence. “But who told you 
about it? I meant to take you by sur- 
prise.” 

“Oh,” she laughed, merrily, “a little 
bird told me—a little bird that is ve’y 
fond of music.” 

By this time they had come out on 
the broad bridge, and the waters of the 
bay lay spread out before them bathed 


in the molten moonlight. 


139 





“YT don’t think Grandma is a ve’y 
good judge of the weather—do you?” 
she went on, “if she was afraid of a 
sto’m to-night.” 

“If your being here is the result of 
her miscalculation,’ he said, “I will 
recommend her for Old Probabilities’ 
place whenever she wants it.” 

The splendid upper promenade was 
almost deserted, and when they came 
to the balcony at the end there was no- 
body at all within sound of their voices. 
The young man knew that the time had 
come, and at the moment of need he 
had a sudden inspiration. 

“Tt would be nice,” she declared, “ to 
have Grandma for the Clerk of the 
Weather if she could give us nights as 
lovely as this whenever she pleased.” 

The orchestra on the ground-floor of 
the Casino was still playing the arrange- 
ment from Montezuma, and the players 


140 





now began the serenade from that opera 
—the tenor love-song which had almost 
carried the piece into popularity, and 
which still survived the oblivion of the 
rest of the score. 

So it was to the accompaniment of 
his own music that the composer spoke 
again. 

“Miss ’Rina,” he said, and the tone 
in which he spoke betrayed his purpose 
to the girl who was listening, “did you 
ever have the feeling that something 
you think you are seeing or saying or 
doing for the first time has happened 
to you before ?” 

“Often and often,” she answered, 
with an effort to seem unconcerned. 
‘And [Ive heard people say it’s because 
our brain had two halves — just like it 
was a silver dollar.” 

“JT have a feeling now,’ he went 
on, gravely, “as though I had said al- 


141 





ready what I am going to say to you 
now.” 

She knew then that the proposal was 
inevitable, and although he had hesitated 
for a moment, she said nothing. 

“T feel as though I had already told 
you that I love you.” Then he paused 
again, and the clear sweet notes of his 
song rang out on the silvery air from 
the orchestra beneath them. “Itseems 
as though I had always loved you, and 
that I must have told you of it many 
times.” Still she kept silent. “’ Rina,” 
he continued, steadily, “ will you be my 
wife ?” 

“T don’t know what to say,” the girl 
answered at last. “I didn’t think you 
were going to talk this way — at least, 
not yet awhile.” 

But you are going away so soon,” 
he urged, “and I must have your an- 
swer now.” 


142 





“YT can’t make up my mind all at 
once,” she said; ‘‘ you must give me 
time.” 

Then he wondered whether this too 
were also a dream. 

“TI can’t wait!’ he replied. “Ive 
been waiting all summer, for my 
mind was made up as soon as I saw 
you. 9) 

“Tet me have a week. On, you 
must!” she cried. ‘Give me two or 
three days, anyhow.” 

And again he doubted whether he 
were awake or asleep. 

“T don’t see why you can’t decide 
now,” he declared. “What do you 
need two days for? You don’t hate 
me now, do you ?” 

“ Oh no,” she answered, frankly. “I 
couldn’t do that.” 

“Then you do love me a little, don’t 
you?” he urged. 


143 





She did not reply. But when he 
promptly put his arm about her she 
yielded, and let him kiss her, just as the 
music came to an end. 

Half an hour later he took his prom- 
ised bride back to her grandmother. 
She found Miss Marlenspuyk sitting 
with Mrs. Carroll in a sheltered nook 
of the lower veranda. 

By the faces of the young couple the 
old maid saw what had happened, and, 
greatly to the surprise of Grandma, she 
drew the girl to her and kissed her on 
the forehead. 

“ And you thought we had quaw’led,” 
said the Royal Marine, while her grand- 
mother wondered at what was going on 
under her eyes but beyond her compre- 
hension. 

And while the granddaughter was 
explaining, Miss Marlenspuyk was con- 
gratulating Warren Payn. 


144 





“T see,” she said, “it was Lomeo and 
Juliet, after all, and not a /idswmmer- 
Nights Dream.” 


THE END 

















UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 








3 0112 072894089 





